Different, and Loving It
by Winter Witch
Summary: Lily and her Best Friend Kaleb are, suffice it to say, different from your average students, so what happens when James finds himself falling for someone the rest of his house, except for a few, hate? LJ I've upped the rating to R, for darker thoughts
1. Chapter One

Different…and Loving It  
  
A/N Ok, this is a L/J fic, where Lily and her best friend Kaleb (who belongs to me, by the way) are totally different from everyone else…and they love it. Just tell me what you think, and I'll check out your stories!  
  
Chapter One  
  
Lily Evans strolled down the stairs to the Girls Dormitory in Gryffindor Tower, clad in a pair of very low-riding straight and extremely baggy black pants, and a tube top that looked more like she had tied a red bandana around her torso. Her deep red hair hung in dozens of tiny braids around her shoulders, and her emerald eyes portrayed her smirk.   
  
She leaned against the back of a couch with her best friend, Kaleb Brandon. Kaleb was a chestnut brunette with blue eyes, a tan, and a killer smile. They shared the same predatory air, the same sense of humor, and the same intellect, they were meant to be best friends, no doubt about it.   
  
Also occupying the common room were the Marauders. The Marauders were composed of James Potter, seeker on the house Quidditch team, prankster, and all around most popular guy in school, Sirius Black, beater on the house team, wild prankster, and easily as popular as James, Remus Lupin, intelligent, kind, prankster, and nearly as popular as James and Sirius, oh yeah, and Peter Pettigrew, tagalong, shy, mostly a nice person, but not on the same level popularity-wise as James, Remus, and Sirius. They were in their usual spots, in front of the fire, with a horde of girls giggling around them.   
  
"Kaleb, love, remind me again how those twits became Gryffindors?" Lily asked her best friend, referring to the Marauders and the ditzes surrounding them. It was Kaleb's and Lily's habit to call each other 'love', it simply fell out, they were closer than anything, and they loved each other like sisters.   
  
"It's because the gods were bored and wanted to screw us over, mate." Kaleb replied, casting a lazy glance at the offending persons.   
  
"Ah. I'd forgotten." Lily smirked.   
  
Over in front of the fireplace laughter had erupted, due to Sirius regaling the group with the tale of a prank played on Severus Snape, a greasy boy in Slytherin. One of the most popular girls, Jennifer Harris, wrinkled her nose as she caught sight of Lily and Kaleb. "Ugh, why do they have to be down here? They always ruin everything, they're such losers. How did those freaks become Gryffindors? They shouldn't even be allowed at this school. Look how they're dressed!" The other popular girls nodded and giggled their agreement.   
  
Kaleb and Lily noticed this, and also heard the comments directed at them. They glanced at each other as if to say, 'Should I take this one, or you?' Kaleb nodded and stepped towards the group, smirking. "And what should we dress like, you? I'm sorry that my dream isn't to be a silicone clone." she deadpanned.   
  
Lily joined her best friend, and looked at the group condescendingly. "As for deserving to be here, where should we be? Out with Voldemort painting snakes and skulls in the sky? Oh, honey, don't try and think. We wouldn't want to trigger the Apocalypse, would we?"   
  
The pair watched as Jennifer became flustered, clearly not understanding, or being able to spell for that matter, half of what they said…hmmm…to think that they even used tiny words for them. "Well…you're just a couple of…freaks!"   
  
"Did you hear that, Lily love? She called us freaks!" Kaleb put a hand to her heart, in mock despair.   
  
"Love? Just how close are you two?" Sirius asked, smirking.   
  
In response Lily snaked her arm around Kaleb's waist, "Wouldn't you like to know…" and snapped her teeth playfully at Sirius.   
  
Sirius arched an eyebrow.   
  
"Now, I believe we will give you all enough time to work out what just happened, Jennifer…try looking in the big book with the word DICTIONARY on it, I'm sorry it doesn't have any pictures…but it should do!" Kaleb said, and she and Lily strolled up the stairs to the Girls Dormitory.   
  
"Remmie, what was that about a pack of lips?" Jennifer whined.   
  
"Don't call me Remmie. And it's 'apocalypse' it's the end of the World. She was saying that if you tried to think it would bring about the end of the world, because you have never done so before." Remus said, irritated.   
  
Jennifer looked confused, and then burst out with, "Remmie! She called me dumb!"   
  
Upstairs Lily and Kaleb heard this, and erupted into laughter. "Oh gods, Kaleb! That was terrific!" Lily laughed.   
  
Kaleb nodded and responded, "Now, you know we have to play a prank on them, right? Now Lily, my love, any suggestions?"  
  
"Oh, I think a bald Sirius and a purple-haired Jennifer would do the trick!"  
  
"What about the giggle-ditzes, purple hair as well?"  
  
"Certainly!"   
  
This brought Kaleb and Lily both into fits of laughter, and each time their gales died down all they had to do was look at each other and they started up again.   
  
  
In the morning, Kaleb and Lily rose before the other girls, and went into the bathroom with their things. They divided the work in half, and each poured a capful of potion into each girl's shampoo bottle. They had brewed the potion a month earlier, and it kept very well, it was designed so that it would turn each girl's hair bright electric purple, and it would stay that way for 48 hours, but the girl herself would not see any difference in her hair, they would simply see their usual hair color. After they completed their task, they set about getting ready for the day. Lily pointed her wand at her head, muttered the washing spell, the drying spell, and the braiding spell all in sequence. As her hair was being braided into dozens of thin braids, Lily slipped into an ankle length black skirt that was slit up both sides to mid-thigh, and an emerald green three-finger tank-top accented by a black shark's tooth necklace.   
  
Kaleb slipped on a pair of black flares and a white tank top, and her hair hung around her shoulders. The pair exited the bathroom just as the other girls were coming in, and using the showers. Kaleb and Lily allowed their usual smirks to grace their features as they thought about what the girls were rubbing into their hair.   
  
Kaleb and Lily headed down to breakfast, strolling coolly and confidently. They took their usual places at the Gryffindor table, at the end, and on their side was the gaggle of ditzes and the Marauders. "So, Lily, Lady of Charms, will you be performing the Sirius honors?" Kaleb asked.  
  
"Of course, Kaleb, Lady of Potions." Lily responded snootily, and giggled.   
  
Just then the Marauders entered the Great Hall, with a group of giggling, purple-haired girls trailing them. The Great Hall roared with laughter at the sight of the girls, each one with matching electric purple hair. Lily and Kaleb wore identical smirks, amused beyond all reason at the girls' hair.   
  
The hall quieted down when everyone was seated, and the food appeared on the tables. Kaleb pointed her wand at the pitcher of Pumpkin Juice that sat in front of Sirius, and whispered a spell that made it fall into his lap. Lily winked at her partner in crime, "Nice distraction." She said.   
  
Lily then pointed her own wand at Sirius' hair and muttered a rather long Charm Sentence. Sirius' hair instantly disappeared.   
  
This, of course, spurred on a new round of laughter, headed up by the Slytherins.   
  
Lily and Kaleb smirked, and waved at Sirius, as he looked around, trying to find the source of everyone's amusement. Remus noticed Lily's wave, and leaned over towards her. "How did you do that?" he questioned, as Sirius ran his hand where his hair should have been, and noticed no change.   
  
"Well, Lupin, it's really quite simple. Remember those Charm Sentences we did in Flitwick's class? All I did was combine the banishing charm, the correct term for Black's hair, the location to banish it to…which I'm not sure I'll tell you, and a version of the Confundus charm that I've developed, designed to make him notice no change." Lily said proudly.   
  
"Really? Wow, none of us could get the Sentences down…Flitwick kept going on about grammar…that's pretty cool." Remus conceded.   
  
Lily rolled her eyes. "It's no big. Besides, you and yours are better at Transfiguration anyway. Play to your strengths. Take Snape for example, almost every prank he's ever played on you wankers…I mean, yeah I mean wankers, has been a potion, because that's what he's good at. The only person who is better than Snape in Potions is Kaleb here, so whenever we need a potion, it's her bag. My thing is Charms, as we have just established. By the way, that won't rub off until tonight, about midnight if I conjugated correctly."   
  
"Lupin, you don't seem to be as vile as I thought…how did you get tied down with those gits?" Kaleb asked, arching one brow.   
  
Remus flashed a grin and said, "You know Kaleb, I haven't the foggiest idea."   
  
And that was that. Kaleb and Lily had found another friend in Remus, something no one ever expected to happen. 


	2. Chapter Two

A/N Oh my god! I love you all! Thanks for reviewing my story, individuals are at the end.   
  
And that was that. Kaleb and Lily had found another friend in Remus, something no one ever expected to happen.   
  
In Potions, however, something just as strange happened.   
  
Kaleb and Lily were sharing a workspace as per usual, when Professor Clemens announced they would be working in groups of three, for their were three units of potion to be drunk. Professor Clemens liked Lily and Kaleb, and usually kept them together, as was the case today. However, the other person in their group was the oddball, Clemens paired our two girls with none other than James Potter.   
  
Lily groaned as James came over to their circular table and sat down his things.   
  
"You know Evans, this isn't exactly my idea of a party either." James said as he relaxed into his chair.   
  
"Really? Could've fooled me. I doubt you know how to party, with the bimbos you hang around." Lily drawled.   
  
"Oh, and I take it you do?" James said, a little edgy.   
  
"Would you doubt me?" Lily raised one eyebrow and gave a mischievous half-grin.   
  
"I might. Who would you have to party with?" James asked, hoping to get a barb through her thick skin.   
  
"Oh, just about everyone at The Solstice." Kaleb responded.   
  
"The Solstice?" James asked.   
  
"Yeah, you know…the club? In Hogsmeade? Wow, none of this is ringing any bells in that empty head of yours is it?" Lily smirked.   
  
"I've heard of the Solstice, but I didn't think you'd actually been there. How did you two freaks get in?" James said.  
  
"Same way I do everything, sheer charm." Lily said, flashing a saccharine smile.   
  
James arched a brow and said, "Riiiiiight."   
  
Kaleb raised both brows, and challenged him. "Don't believe us? We were going to go tonight, feel like a party? You can come, on one condition."  
  
"And that is?"   
  
"You bring Remus, for your sake. He'll pretty much be the only thing between Lily going all Pompeii and you." Kaleb said.   
  
"Alright. I'll bring the Marauders, where're we meeting?"   
  
"By the statue of the old hump-back witch. Meet us at 11:30 tonight, cool?" Kaleb asked.   
  
"Yeah, cool." James responded.   
  
  
When it came to be 11:25 Kaleb and Lily were heading down to the statue. Kaleb was wearing a pair of black elephant pants and a sapphire blue tube top, and her hair was down around her shoulders. Lily was clad in black combat boots, a black mini skirt and a dark red spaghetti strap top that was slashed, like claw marks, across the stomach, and all over the back. Lily's hair was straight and down around her shoulders, and quite simply, both girls looked dangerous. They both carried their wands, Kaleb in a pocket in her pants and Lily in her boots.   
  
Once they reached the statue, the Marauders were already waiting for them…looking as they always did.   
  
Kaleb let out a sigh at the same time Lily did. "They'll never let you in there looking like that." Kaleb said succinctly.   
  
"Preps really don't understand dressing for the occasion, do they love?" Lily agreed.   
  
Peter surveyed their attire and posed a question. "What's wrong with how we're dressed?"   
  
Lily gave him The Look, the 'oh don't even make me go there' look. But she went there. "Listen Pettigrew, this is a CLUB not a dance committee meeting! Here," she began, casting charms at Peter every time she paused. "Let's spike the hair…shirt should be hunter green, and loose…and those pants? Nuh-uh. Black…with slashes at the knees. I have a thing for slash marks." Lily smirked, gesturing to her shirt.   
  
Kaleb nodded approvingly when Lily had finished working on Peter. "Nice work, Lil."  
  
Lily smiled at the compliment, a true, genuine smile, which James caught himself thinking rather fetching. "Thanks! Now for Black. Honestly, I don't think that you grew your hair to mid-back to have a stylin' 'ponytail'! Hair should be loose…shirt? Let's go with your name, black, and fitted…pants should be dark blue cargos…there. Now THAT is the look for Solstice."   
  
"Remus, let's try a White fitted shirt…light blue cargos…and, oh crap, this charm never looks right, I'll just do it myself." Lily said and walked to Remus. "Bow your head." She asked.   
  
"Uh, ok…" Remus replied, and complied. Lily ran her fingers through his hair, tilting his head to its normal position. She surveyed his hair, then tousled it slightly.   
  
Kaleb whistled appreciatively. "Wow Remus, if I didn't know you better, I wouldn't be able to leave you alone! Do you have a stick to beat all those girls off with?" Kaleb teased, knowing it would make Remus blush.   
  
And that it did. Remus flushed a bright pink.   
  
"Now for Mr. Potter. How about…Hunter green fitted, and dark blue cargos?" Lily cast the charms and nodded.   
  
"Hair?" James inquired.   
  
"Nah, I kind of like the whole 'Doesn't own a comb' look." Lily smiled.   
  
James rolled his eyes. "Thanks."   
  
"Don't mention it."   
  
Kaleb tapped the statue with her wand and said, "Dissendium." The witch moved to reveal a passageway. "Now this leads straight to the basement at Honeydukes, but Lily and I are allowed to use it…the guy who owns Honeydukes thinks that we're just the sweetest little girls!" Kaleb laughed.  
  
The group walked down the passageway, and emerged in the basement at honeydukes. After climbing a set of stairs, they exited the building. Kaleb led them down the main street, and off onto a sidestreet, and she paused in front of a perfectly ordinary street lamp. She tapped it with her wand and said, "The Solstice moon brings out more than wolves…"   
  
"Follow us!" Lily dictated, and they all touched the lamp, and were portkey-ed to a loud, raucous club.   
  
"Hey Lily! What's up Kaleb?" Random voices called out around the room. Lily and Kaleb returned greetings and then turned to their companions.   
  
"Ok! This, obviously is the dance floor, over there is the bar, and back there are rooms I don't expect any of you to enter." Lily said, then eyed Sirius, "Well…maybe you. Lemme clarify, boy meet girl, girl can tolerate boy, girl and boy snog."   
  
"Any questions?" Kaleb asked.   
  
"Care to dance, my love?" Lily asked, and they waved at the marauders, as they headed onto the dance floor. Kaleb's and lily's movements on the dance floor were wild enough to show that they loved to party, but chaste enough to show they weren't easy. They moved in perfect time to the music, currently a number by 'Eye of newt' called 'Unforgivable'.   
  
"What do you think?" Sirius asked.   
  
"About what?" james responded.   
  
"Them!" Remus replied.   
  
"About Lily and Kaleb!" Peter clarified.   
  
"Well, I admit that they are hot…very hot…but I dunno, they're so…" James trailed off.   
  
"Wild?"  
  
"Free?"  
  
"Independent?"   
  
"I was going to say life-threatening, but ok. By the way Sirius, how did you get your hair back?" James asked.   
  
"Oh, Remus got Lily to reverse the spell. She's rather brilliant, that one. We could use her for some pranking." Sirius explained.   
  
"Yeah, I was thinking about that too. She's the only person in the class who can do Charms Sentences." Remus agreed.   
  
Peter simply nodded enthusiastically, happy that Lily made him look like he belonged at that club. "And Kaleb is really awesome at Potions too!" He piped up.   
  
"Well…I don't know. If we have them pranking with us then we might have to tell them about the You Know Whats about all of us." James reasoned.   
  
"I think we can trust them, if it ever comes to that." Remus said thoughtfully.   
  
Lily stopped dancing and looked over at the conversing guys. "Come on! You're at a club, dance!" She dashed over and grabbed Remus and James' arms, and dragged them onto the dance floor, pleased that Sirius and Peter took the hint and followed.   
  
James made a face, "I don't dance!"  
  
Lily smirked. "Don't, or can't?"  
  
"Take your pick."  
  
"C'mon, everyone can dance! Just move!" Lily insisted, and took James' hands in her own. "Just start off like this, and find your rhythm." She moved her hips to the beat of the music, and guided James to start dancing. Sirius, Remus, and Peter were already out in the dance floor, dancing like there was no tomorrow.   
  
Slowly James got more comfortable on the dance floor, and was even beginning to impress Lily, and that is not an easy feat.   
  
"Hey, Potter! How come you never move like this at school dances?" Lily asked.   
  
"Are you kidding me? Nobody there would know what to do!" He laughed.   
  
After a few more dances, Lily and James headed over to the bar, and sat at a table near the wall after getting a couple of butterbeers. "So, still doubt that I can party?" Lily asked, wickedly.   
  
"There are no doubts anymore, Tiger Lily." James replied.   
  
"Tiger Lily?" She asked, cocking her head and smiling.   
  
"Yeah, that's what I'm going to call you from now on." James said, smiling slightly.   
  
"Yeah, right, like you'll even condescend to talk to me once we're back at school." Lily rolled her eyes, she wasn't going to hold her breath.   
  
"Why wouldn't I?" James asked, genuinely confused.   
  
"Hello? You're James the Prep King Potter and I'm Lily Social Outcast Evans. It'd be social suicide for you to talk to me, not to mention the fact that your rep is all you care about." Lily explained, as one would to a child.   
  
"It's not all I care about. Why are you a social outcast anyways? Why do you insist on being so…different?"   
  
"Because I love it. I refuse to blend in with those idiots. I have a mind of my own, a style of my own and a sense of humor of my own and I won't pretend otherwise." Lily shrugged.   
  
James took a sip of his butterbeer. "So you don't care what people think of you?"   
  
"Not at all."  
  
"I wish I could be like that." James admitted.   
  
"Then do it! You don't have to be anything you don't want to be, you know." Lily insisted.   
  
"It's not so easy. Everyone has these expectations that I have to meet, or I've let everyone down." James sighed.   
  
Lily was about to protest when Remus, Sirius, and Kaleb joined them. "Hey Lils, what's up?" Kaleb asked.   
  
"Not much." She replied, glaring at James. "Where's Peter?"  
  
"You know those rooms? Well, he found one." Sirius said with a rakish grin.   
  
"Are you serious?" James asked.   
  
"Of course I'm Sirius! Geez, James, I would've thought you had my name down by now!" Sirius laughed, at the very, very battered pun.   
  
All those at the table groaned. "Sirius, that joke is older than dirt." Remus said.   
  
"And yet he has reanimated it, ah, to bow to the genius of one, Dr. Frankenstein!" Kaleb said dramatically, causing Lily and Remus to laugh.   
  
"Huh?" Sirius articulated.   
  
"Mary Shelley wrote a book called Frankenstein, and this guy, Dr. Frankenstein reanimated dead tissue, just to prove it could be done." Lily clarified.   
  
"Oh…kay…" James said, understanding…somewhat.   
  
"They have some dead tissue that impairs their ability to process information…if you catch my drift…" Remus said, pointing to his head.   
  
"Yeah. So Lily, we should probably head back. I trust that you preps can make it back all alone?" Kaleb asked, standing.   
  
"Yeah, let's go Kaleb. Enjoy the party, and go find Peter in a few minutes, if he's not back by then, it's usually a very bad thing. Ciao." Lily bid them farewell, and headed towards the exit with Kaleb.   
  
A/N Ok, so that chapter was a bit dull, so sue me! I'm so glad you like this!  
  
Heart2heart- I plan to! These chapters just keep jumping out of my head!  
  
Jay Potter- thanks for the review, and of course I'll continue!  
  
Eressa- no! Not the nothing! Ahhh! Glad you like it!  
  
Mike- I just really love the name Kaleb, and I thought, why do all the girls have to have really feminine names? So I chose my favorite guy name and gave it to her! She just doesn't seem like the average girl to me. And of course Lily is going to be a strong opinionated person. I don't think she would've been able to die for Harry later if she wasn't strong. And you can just wait and see about the saving…but there will be no damsels in distress as far as MY Lily.   
  
Trixy- I'm glad you think so! I wanted to have an original story  
  
BooBooKitty- yeah, normal is so boring, don't you think? And sure I'll read your stories!  
  
~Angel~ Personally I love Kaleb and Lily's senses of humor, they remind me of my best friend's!  
  
starblaze- will do! 


	3. Chapter Three

A/N Sorry for the delay, but I'll try and keep churning out chapters!  
  
Lily poked Kaleb in the side, while the aforementioned brunette was slumbering peacefully. "WHAT?!" she said loudly, as she jumped about a foot in the air.   
  
Then, seeing Lily she promptly cast a silencing charm, and beat her friend soundly with a pillow. "You, Lily my love, are damned lucky I don't feel up to murder tonight!"   
  
Lily stopped laughing and divested her friend of her pillow. "Now that I'm safe for a while, I wanted to know what you thought about tonight?"   
  
"Am I hearing correctly? Are you turning into a, gasp, girl? You want to stay up late and giggle about going out with the Marauders?" Kaleb looked at her in mock horror, and it was Lily's turn to beat her best friend with a pillow.   
  
Kaleb managed to banish the pillow across the room, where it hit Jennifer Harris in the head, without waking her.   
  
"I thought it was fun. I mean, a lot more so than I would have expected. Sirius and Remus can actually move when they want to, and I didn't see you complaining over there with James!" Kaleb accused.   
  
Lily simply smirked a nearly obscene smirk and said, "Hey, no complaints here."   
  
"Then go to bed. Or else I will tell James, in front of the whole school, that you sleep with a stuffed unicorn." Kaleb threatened.   
  
"Go ahead, like I care!" Lily challenged, giggling madly.   
  
"Dang it. This is one of those rare moments when I hate that you're an individual."   
  
"Ah, you know you love me."   
  
"yeah, and I'd love you even more if you'd let me get some sleep."  
  
Lily sighed as if making some big sacrifice, then retreated to her bed. "The things I do for my friends."   
  
  
When the pair woke up the next morning, they showered and dressed and went down to the Common room as usual, barely speaking, simply communicating with knowing glances.   
  
When they reached the Common Room they burst into a round of knowing laughter, triggered by one of the expressions on the other's face. They were soon silenced when the Marauders headed over towards them.   
  
"Hey Lils, Kaleb." Remus greeted them, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.   
  
"Hey Rems." Lily and Kaleb replied in unison, without batting an eye, it was normal, they just spent so much time together that they were constantly finishing each other's sentences and the like.   
  
"What, no simple 'hellos' for the rest of us Tiger Lily?" James asked, grinning.   
  
"Nah, we don't…" Lily started and Kaleb finished, "…greet Wankers."   
  
"Has anyone ever told you how creepy that is?" Remus asked, shaking his head.   
  
"If you hadn't noticed, we don't generally talk to people, so they haven't had the pleasure of discovering that little personality trait." Kaleb deadpanned.   
  
"Ew, who called the loser patrol?" A familiar, snotty voice whine. Jennifer Harris was on the site again.   
  
"Well it certainly wasn't us, maybe you should go see if they wanted you?" Lily said innocently.   
  
Jennifer made a face, and then said in a menacing voice, "Now, Evans, I don't know what you think you're doing, maybe you think by hanging around the Marauders you'll be popular, but nobody. Likes. You. So just turn your punked out little self around, and go set a teacher on fire with that awful hair of yours, before something happens to you."   
  
Lily smiled lazily, the sort of smile that a feline has when its circling its prey. "Now, now Harris, darling. You know its never been my aim to be popular, and was that a threat I heard escape your ditzy little mouth? You should know by now not to threaten me, I mean, after all, I know what you did last summer."  
  
"I didn't do anything last summer!" Jennifer squeaked.   
  
"So, you're worried that I'll tell the Marauders that you had breast enhancement charms done? Oops! Sorry. Doesn't look like it did anything, does it?" Lily smirked, her eyes flicking downward for a split second. "Maybe this'll help. Engorgio!" Lily hissed, and Jennifer's bum grew to be the size of a small sofa.   
  
Jennifer shrieked and tried to run back up to the dorm, knocking over several people, pieces of furniture, and portraits before realizing she couldn't fit up the stairs! Her ditzy friends were all around her, trying to figure out the counter-charm, but ended up turning her bum blue and sprouting daisies.   
  
Lily could barely contain her laughter, and a few giggles escaped.   
  
"Well, that's a lesson she won't soon forget!" Sirius said, roaring with laughter.   
  
"God, Lils, a bit dangerous are we?" Remus said, smiling at his friend.   
  
Kaleb wrapped an arm around her shoulders and said to her, "So, Lils, how long do you think it'll be before they remember Finite Incantatem?"  
  
"I'd wager until some third year tells her out of pity." Peter said thoughtfully.   
  
"You know, Pettigrew, that sounds about right." Kaleb smirked.   
  
"So, we'll be seeing you in detention tonight?" James asked Lily.   
  
"Oh, I don't know. McGonagall rarely gives me detention. This one might be worth it though!" Lily laughed.   
  
"here," Kaleb said and cast a loss of solidity charm at Jennifer's bum, making it wiggle all over with every move. "Now we've both got detention."   
  
"You're the best Kaleb, my love." Lily grinned and headed towards the Great Hall with her friend.   
  
"No, no, you're the best!" Kaleb replied, and Lily appeared to think about this for a while, then held her free arm (the right one was entangled with Kaleb's) out to Remus.   
  
"I believe Rems is the best!" Lily said seriously, and smiled when Remus took her arm.   
  
"Now that we've all agreed that we're the best, I'm hungry, so move it." Remus said, laughing.   
  
"Right-o! Onward, fearless leader!" Kaleb said, with a flourish.   
  
"I was thinking of a more, mon capitan?" Remus said, looking at Kaleb.   
  
"You're both wrong, I'm more of a…Joan d'Arc." Lily said proudly.   
  
"What, have you been burned at the stake lately?" Kaleb scoffed.   
  
"Oh, come on, we both know that she didn't really die then, she just cast that Flame Freezing Charm, remember?" Lily laughed.   
  
"Quite right. Well, how about…Guinevere?" Remus suggested.  
  
"She was a wimp. Plus she had an affair with Lancelot, and I can't respect that. How about…Lily the Supreme Ruler and Head Llama Jockey of Gryffindor?"   
  
"Oh yes, THAT works." Kaleb smiled.   
  
"Llama jockey?" Remus asked.   
  
"Lily went to these mountains and she rode llamas all over the place, now she won't shut up about it." Kaleb explained.  
  
"Ah, I see."  
  
"Hey! Are we going to breakfast anytime soon?" Sirius' voice called from behind them.   
  
"Oh! I forgot you lot were back there!" Lily said.   
  
"Well, now that you've been reminded, lets get a move on!" James insisted, and the group finally made their way into the Great Hall.   
  
A/N Sorry, that chapter was pointless, I just though I'd show you a bit of the Pair's relationship with Remus, and how they're sort of disregarding the other Marauders still. Heh, more out soon! 


	4. Chapter Four

A/N I am so glad you guys liked chapter three, I was worried you'd hate it! It really didn't have much of a point, hehe   
  
Lily, Remus, and Kaleb each took seats down at the very end of the Gryffindor Table, and Sirius, James, and Peter filled in beside them.   
  
Lily quirked a brow at this. "Um, shouldn't you be sitting somewhere else? This doesn't leave much room for your entourage."  
  
"They," Sirius said, waving his hand at the aforementioned entourage, "Can kiss my arse. We're sitting with our friends, thanks much."  
  
"Friends? What suddenly makes us friends? We went clubbing, on a challenge I might add, just yesterday I banished your hair to the 12th Immortal Plane! What out of all of this makes us chums? What makes you assume I want to associate with you?" Lily said, eyes narrowing, every word dripping venom.   
  
None of that shook Sirius however. "All of that makes us Chums. And the 12th Immortal Plane? Wow…you're going to have to show me how to do that sometime. Pass the waffles, Moony."  
  
While Remus was passing the Waffles, Lily and Kaleb were exchanging looks. "Are these guys for real?" Lily's eyes seemed to say.   
  
Kaleb decided to answer her friend out loud. "Sadly, yes."  
  
The owls chose this opportune moment to swoop in, delivering the day's post. Lily glanced at a letter addressed to her, and shut her eyes tightly. This went surprisingly unnoticed by Kaleb, who was speaking to Remus at the time.   
  
And thus began Lily's mutilation of her waffle. Never taking a bite, mind you, just stabbing it to death with her fork.   
  
"Sadly yes, what?" Peter asked, his head perking up.   
  
"Lily asked if you guys were for real, I answered her." Kaleb deadpanned.   
  
"I didn't hear her." Sirius said, confused.   
  
"You weren't looking at her were you?" Kaleb explained, smirking.   
  
Sirius, still confused, wisely decided to let the subject drop.   
  
"So, Lily, going on a rampage against waffles, or what?" James asked, bemused.   
  
The glare Lily shot at him could have killed. "As a matter of fact, Potter, I am. Next on my list is annoying Tousle-haired Preps. Care to stand in line?"  
  
"What's your problem, Lily? I thought we were getting along last night." James said, annoyed.   
  
Lily took a deep breath. "Listen, I'm sorry, ok?" At this point she made a choked sound. "I need to go, bye." With that she grabbed her books and strode from the Hall.   
  
"What was that all about?" Remus asked no one in particular.   
  
Kaleb stared after her friend. "I don't know…but you should be proud, Potter, that's the first time she's said sorry to someone since I've known her…" Kaleb then grabbed her own books, and followed Lily.   
  
Immediately Jennifer Harris and a random ditz filled their spots. "What's their problem? They're just so rude! I can't believe that anyone could be that annoying!" Jennifer exclaimed.   
  
Remus stared at the offending ditz. "You're joking, right?"  
  
Jennifer, in her usual manner, appeared confused. "What? No I'm not! They're positively awful!"   
  
~With Lily and Kaleb~  
  
"Lily! LILY HELENA EVANS! YOU WILL SLOW YOUR BUTT DOWN THIS INSTANT!" Kaleb yelled at her friend, as she dashed out to the lake.   
  
"They're dead." Lily said simply, staring at the water.   
  
Kaleb put a hand on her friend's shoulder. "Who's dead, Lils?"   
  
"My parents. They're dead. Because I'm a muggle-born. To think, if I hadn't come to this school, if I hadn't had to make near perfect marks, they'd still be here. They'd still be here." Lily said, in an eerie monotone.   
  
Kaleb wrapped Lily in her arms fiercely. "Don't say that. Don't you dare say that. C'mon Lils, its just like what you told me when Mother died, it isn't goodbye forever. Besides, they don't have to be gone to you, they still love you, and you love them, and that is what matters. Lily, don't go to pieces on me, ok? You're the strong one."   
  
"I just, need to be alone for a while, ok Kaleb, my love?" Lily said, her eyes still dead, emotionless.   
  
"O-ok, love, ok. But, you know I'm here, right? I'll always be here."   
  
Lily smiled, and gestured towards the castle. "Go." And Kaleb went, and Lily climbed into the Weeping (Not the Whomping) Willow, and that was how things were.   
  
  
By the time Kaleb made in back into the Gryffindor Common Room, the Marauders were already there, waiting for her.   
  
"Kaleb, what's wrong with her?" Peter squeaked.   
  
Kaleb shot him a cold look. "As if you care." She snarled. "As if any of you have ever cared about anyone. Life and Death, Pettigrew, that's what's wrong with her. Voldemort, that's what's wrong with her. She'll be fine, not that you care, because Lily's strong, because she can pull herself together. And all of you, can kiss my ass." Kaleb felt righteous for Lily, and angry at Voldemort, at the world that allowed Voldemort to exist, and here were four, easy, targets.   
  
She flexed the muscles in her hands, itching to pull out her wand and hex the hell out of them. But she didn't. She bared her teeth once, then gracefully stormed up to her dormitory.   
  
~With Lily~  
  
Lily sat in the old Weeping Willow, lying against the truck, her legs splayed over a couple branches. She sat like this for nearly two hours, crying, mourning the loss of her parents.   
  
Suddenly, she jerked into alertness, almost wanting to smack herself. "Lily Helena Evans. Why are you moping around? They may be gone, but it isn't goodbye forever. We'll meet again, and we'll all have had happy lives when we do." For some reason this comforted her more than she thought it would.   
  
She wiped the tears from her eyes, and jumped down from the tree, heading towards the Gryffindor Common Room. 'I love you, Mum and Dad, and I know you love me.'   
  
~With the Marauders~  
  
"Ok, what?" Sirius asked the other boys, as Kaleb managed to somehow look angelic and murderous at the same time as she made her exit.   
  
"Well, look at this logically, Kaleb said that it was a matter of life and death, and Voldemort. She said that Lily could pull herself together…I'm only coming to one conclusion. Her family must be dead." Remus said, biting his lower lip.   
  
James felt a stab in his heart. That was why she was so upset…god…he would be too. "What do we do?"   
  
"Well, none of us knows where she is at the moment…eh…strike that…there she is." Sirius said, gesturing to the Portrait.   
  
Lily Evans sauntered into the common room, green eyes glowing and dangerous.   
  
(A/N, and now, the long awaited Hero!Lily)  
  
Remus reached out and touched her arm, halting her progress to the Girl's Dormitory. "Lils…" he said solemnly, a concerned expression haunting his amber eyes.   
  
"Lupin…just…" But she never got to finish her statement. Just then, Jennifer Harris strode up to her and smirked.   
  
"You seem a bit edgy today, Evans. It's the full moon tomorrow, isn't it? I hear your kind get a bit edgy around this time of the month." Jennifer's eyes glinted cruelly.   
  
"My kind?" Lily drawled, wondering where the Wonder-Ditz was taking this.   
  
"Yes. I know that either you or Lupin is a werewolf. You both eat a lot of meat around the full moon, and you miss a lot of classes then. But Remus is too cute, it has to be you."  
  
Lily wanted to laugh with the ridiculousness of it all. How the ditz had gotten so close to Remus' secret was beyond her, for it had taken Lily herself only two months to figure it out in first year, but the Wonder-Ditz should still be blissfully unaware, by her calculations. "Harris…" Lily growled, in warning, casting a glance at the now painfully nervous Marauders. Remus looked deathly pale, and Lily knew why.   
  
"Harris, if you breathe one word of my identity to anyone I may just find it a little too difficult to resist sinking my teeth into your throat. Got that?" Lily threatened, her eyes flashing with mock murderous rage.   
  
Jennifer went pale and stumbled off, in fear.   
  
Lily then turned to the Marauders, who were staring at her in wonder, each looking as though they could kiss her. "Remus, don't worry. You're secret has been safe with me ever since first year, that won't change now."   
  
Remus pulled her into a bone crushing hug. "Why would you do that for me?"  
  
Lily pulled back, and shrugged. "I know what she would do to you, and you don't deserve that. The whole school already hates me, and calls me a freak, what's one thing more? Besides, Kaleb, me, and the faculty know that I'm not, who else would I need to convince?"   
  
"Well, we already know, so no one else." James put in, smiling at her. "Thank you, Lionne."  
  
Lily quirked a brow. "Lionne?"  
  
Sirius grinned and nodded. "Lionne. Its French for Lioness. Now you're our Lioness."   
  
Lily felt a flare of anger, but she fought it down, they couldn't know. They couldn't know how terribly she hated being thought of as belonging to someone. How much it reminded her of Aunt Lucille and what Uncle Gregory did to her.   
  
"Lionne, then. I'm going to get try and talk Kaleb down, I'm correct in assuming that she attacked you on my behalf?"   
  
The Marauders nodded sheepishly, and she was gone. 


	5. Chapter Five

A/N I love you all! Thanks for all the reviews!  
  
Lily slipped into the dorm room silently, to find Kaleb staring out the window down at the lake.   
  
"Hey Lils." Kaleb said and turned around to face her friend. Lily would never know how Kaleb always knew when she was there.   
  
"Hey Kaleb. Guess what?"  
  
"You've destroyed the Marauders? Good work!" Kaleb smiled.   
  
"Nope, I've saved their asses. Harris got pretty close to Remus' secret…so I told her I was the werewolf. Wicked, huh?" Lily grinned.   
  
And they both understood. Lily would not take any pity about her parents...she wasn't at peace, but she was close to it.  
  
"Quite."  
  
"Yeah, and they've changed my little nickname from Tiger Lily to Lionne. Its French for Lioness I guess. So, I notice they were all still standing when I got there…what did you say to them?" Lily joined her only true friend at the window, drawing a wand shooting sparks in the fog she created.   
  
"I told them off for being selfish bastards that would never care about anything but themselves." Kaleb said nonchalantly.   
  
Lily grinned, that was her Kaleb.   
  
"Cool. I suppose you'll be upset with what I say next then. I admit that they are selfish bastards, but they don't seem intolerable. Could I convince you to come with me to hang out with them? You wouldn't leave me alone, would you?" Lily pleaded, pouting.   
  
Kaleb laughed, a melodious laugh and linked arms with Lily. "Lily, my love, you could convince me of anything. Shall we away?"   
  
"Of course, love!"   
  
The pair strolled down the stairs, arm in arm, to greet the sight of the Marauders sitting on a couch and a couple of chairs, seemingly deep in discussion.   
  
"They already know about that, we can tell them!" Sirius was insisting, as they sat next to the Marauders.   
  
"Know what?" Kaleb asked coolly, blue eyes icy.   
  
"Nothing." Peter said quickly, and Kaleb narrowed her eyes, as if trying to make his head implode with wandless magic.   
  
Peter was about to fold, and everyone there knew it. So James, being the good Gryffindor that he was, saved him. "So! Are we safe from the wrath of the Kaleb?"   
  
Kaleb smirked, and responded in a calmly murderous tone, "Nobody's safe from me, Potter."   
  
The tone alone was enough to send shivers down your spine, but add the frozen blue gaze, and the slightly bared teeth, and there was cause for a stroke.   
  
Remus coughed, mostly to relieve the tension in the room. Sirius took this as a hint, and started right in on the proposition. "Yes, well. We were wondering if you lovely ladies would care to accompany us on…a midnight stroll this evening?"   
  
Lily turned to Kaleb and said, "I believe that's Prep-speak for pranking, shall we?"   
  
Kaleb shrugged and said, "For sooth, my love, we stay but at your leisure."   
  
Lily's eyes lit up, just as Kaleb knew they would. "Ah, Macbeth. I love that play, but its been ages since I've read it. You know, you have always reminded me of Banquo, but hopefully you don't find me as bloodthirsty as that Thane of Glamis and Cawdor. But of course, a bit of pranking sounds delightful."  
  
"I was thinking more of a Lady Macbeth. You know, the woman controlling the man." Kaleb mused, tilting her head.   
  
The Marauders stared, transfixed on the dialogue taking place in front of them for reasons they could not explain.   
  
"Ah, I always loved her character." Lily smiled, a rare, genuine smile. She turned back to the Marauders. "What time should we be ready?"   
  
"About 11:00 pm. Just meet us down here." Remus replied.   
  
The day passed quickly, and soon fell to night. The two heroines in our story crept silently down the stairs, and the Marauders, under the guise of the Invisibility cloak, went to join them.   
  
James reached out and tapped Lily on the shoulder, and almost immediately found himself with one of her hands in the middle of his chest, and the other around his throat, pinning him to the wall.   
  
During all of this the cloak had fallen away from them, and Lily backed up in surprise. "Jesus Potter, but you startled me."   
  
Kaleb shook her head. "Wow, Potter. You got her to apologize and be caught off guard all in one day. You must be a man of miracles."   
  
"Must be, to get a compliment from Kaleb." Sirius commented dryly.   
  
"Silence, lesser mortal." Kaleb said, grinning even as she shot him a Death Glare.   
  
Remus just smiled appreciatively. "Nice reflexes, Lionne. Completely bringing a man you couldn't see to your mercy." He then turned to Peter and folded his hands. "The force is strong with this one." Remus said wisely.   
  
Lily and Kaleb chuckled, rolling their eyes.   
  
"So what's on the agenda, lads?" Kaleb asked, twirling her wand on her fingers.   
  
Sirius shrugged. "We figured we'd let you two ladies come up with tonight's plan. Call it a test run."   
  
Lily arched her brow. "A test run? As if you need proof of what we can do? As if you've forgotten the 12th Immortal plane?"   
  
Peter grinned. "Actually we were just too lazy to think up anything."   
  
Kaleb nodded. "Kind of what I figured."   
  
"Well, we just pranked Sirius and the giggle-ditzes…so I say we go for…Malfoy. He was going on and on about how I'm a Mudblood the other day, so how about we put him in a dress, dye his hair orange, and make his socks scream about how bloody awful he smells?" Lily said, spouting whatever came to mind.   
  
Remus' jaw dropped. "You just came up with that off the top of your head, didn't you?"   
  
Lily nodded. "Of course, I mean, that didn't sound planned or anything to me. "   
  
Kaleb shrugged. "Didn't sound like it to me either, my love."   
  
James grinned. "It sounds great. I assume you two know the necessary charms and such?"  
  
Lily rolled her eyes. "I wouldn't suggest it if I couldn't do it, Potter."   
  
Sirius quirked a brow. "Alright, I have got to know. Why the hell do you two call each other 'love' all the time? There are some pretty wild rumors flying around."  
  
Lily and Kaleb looked at each other, then sort of half shrugged. "Well, we aren't lovers if that's what you mean. And not for lack of Kaleb's hotness. We've just always been so close, it just falls out. I love her more than I love anyone else, so why not?"   
  
Kaleb smirked. "Lord knows she's tried to seduce me enough times."  
  
Lily rolled her eyes. "Oh, yes. I just can't keep myself away from her pants."   
  
Peter half-squeaked. "You're kidding, right?"   
  
"Yes, I'm kidding, squirt. Why, you getting all hot and bothered?" Kaleb teased.   
  
At this comment Peter blushed scarlet.   
  
When the chuckling subsided, Lily gestured towards the portrait hole. "Shouldn't we leave before its time to go to breakfast?"   
  
"Lead the way, Lionne." James whispered in her ear, once again invisible.   
  
Suppressing a shiver at the sensation, Lily led the group towards the Common Room exit. 


	6. Chapter Six

(A/N Sorry about the delay! I was having surgery on my foot, and I cannot keep my head up until like a week after those meds.)   
  
(A/N Ok, if you were wondering about the whole 'full moon tomorrow' thing that Jennifer Harris mentioned, the full moon isn't for about a week, Jennifer is simply completely inept at reading a lunar chart)   
  
  
Lily pointed her wand at the statue of Hades that guarded the Slytherin Common Room entrance. "Misendio!" She whispered, and the Statue stepped aside.   
  
As the group entered the room, Sirius posed the question most had. "How did you do that without the password?"   
  
Lily rolled her eyes. "Standard book of spells, Auror Training. It's a spell that lets you confuse the statue, well, more accurately it makes the guardian of an entrance idolize whoever casts the spell on it, I could even change the password if I so wished."   
  
Kaleb quickly broke the reverie and dictated assignments. "Pettigrew, stand out here and send a Silent Color Change charm up the stairs if you hear anything. Remus, you and Sirius go up and change all of Malfoy's robes into dresses, but use a timing charm so it'll take exactly nine and a half hours until the change occurs, so he'll be sitting down at breakfast when it happens. I'll take care of the socks, Lils, you and Potter work on the hair. Ok, everyone?"   
  
The group split up and went their separate ways, Remus and Sirius having entirely too much fun with the "designing" of each dress/atrocity. Kaleb set to work on the socks, working out the details down to the exact pitch and accent of the voice.   
  
Lily, on the other hand, was torn between wanting to strangle Kaleb for leaving her with Potter, and loving her for doing it. 'Oh admit it, he's hot.' Never one to lie to herself, Lily responded to her inner voice, 'Of course he is, I've got eyes. That doesn't mean I enjoy his company or anything, just his…aesthetic appeal.'   
  
"Lionne, how do we make the orange bright but permanent? I mean, just making his hair orange is easy, Pelicus Mendria, but how to we make it so that he can't change it before breakfast?" James' voice was hushed, and as it was a whisper, his voice was inadvertently husky, which had a surprising effect on Lily's knees.   
  
"All you have to do is say Omnius Pelicus Mendria." Lily replied, deliberately lowering her voice a tad to make it sound inadvertently seductive, as if in retaliation.   
  
Lily couldn't hide the smirk that came to her face at his reaction. James' face flushed slightly, and he coughed, to break the silence. "Shall we, Jamie?"   
  
James smiled, and they both raised their wands. "Omnius Pelicus Mendria!" And instantly Malfoy's hair began to change to a brilliant orange color.   
  
Their grins were infectious, and the whole group wore them as they exited the common room.   
  
Lily smirks and lifts her arms gracefully. "Praise me!"   
  
Kaleb rolled her eyes. "Lily, my love, sometimes you worry me."   
  
"Glad to hear it, love." Lily laughed.   
  
"That, Lils, Kaleb, was bloody brilliant!" Remus exclaimed, amber eyes lit up like they were on fire.   
  
"I think the test run was successful, don't you, Padfoot?" James said, smiling at the pair.   
  
"Most definitely, Mr. Prongs." Sirius said, with the air of one making an important announcement.   
  
"Glad to see we meet your expectations." Lily drawled, suddenly back in her calm, cold demeanor.   
  
"Most definitely." Sirius beamed, ignoring Lily's tone.   
  
The group was nearing the common room when Sirius suddenly let out a sound of long-suffering indignation. Having paused and turned to see what was the matter, Lily and James soon found themselves in a small, dark broom closet.   
  
Lily's voice was the first to be heard through the oak. "Sirius Polaris Black! Open this door this INSTANT or I swear to high heaven that I will banish something a BIT more dear to you than even your hair!"   
  
Sheepishly, Sirius opened the door. "Sorry guys…accio!"   
  
Both James and Lily's wands flew from their hands, into Sirius'. "Ta kids! Have fun!"   
  
In the corridor, Kaleb was looking immensely amused. "Now now Mr. Black. What was that all about?"   
  
"Haven't you ever wondered what would happen if they were forced to spend a day together?" Sirius grinned.   
  
"Either the world would implode for their sheer stubbornness, or they would end up killing one another."  
  
"Or, they just might fall madly in love." Remus suggested, grinning at the closed door.   
  
Sirius paused, mid-stride. "Wait a moment…how did Lily know my middle name was Polaris?"   
  
  
Inside the closet Lily let out a frustrated sigh. "Ugh! This does NOT bode well." She slumped against the back wall of the….suspiciously empty…broom closet.   
  
"They have to let us out eventually, people will worry if we aren't in classes on Monday. Or...at the very latest Wednesday. " James said, in an offhand manner.  
  
"How can you be calm about this? Its dark, its enclosed, its small, you're in here with someone you don't even know, and we don't have our wands!" Lily said, almost frantically.   
  
James' grin was invisible as the pair's eyes had yet to become used to the dark. "You're claustrophobic, aren't you!" The laugh in his voice was undeniable.   
  
"Yes!" She hissed, curling in on herself, trying to become as small as possible.   
  
"Come here." James reached for her and pulled her to him, so that her back was against his chest, and she wouldn't see him as an added barrier. "Calm down, Lionne."   
  
Her breathing slowed and she relaxed against him, instinctively reaching for his hand, as she had her father's when he comforted her. Father…that was a painful thought.   
  
"I can't believe Kaleb hasn't let us out, at the very least me! She knows I'm claustrophobic." Lily huffed.   
  
"How long have you and Kaleb known each other?" James said, mostly to get Lily's mind off of the enclosed space.   
  
"Ever since the first day of Hogwarts. Jennifer Harris had been simply accepted as the Queen of our year, and she walked right up to me, looked me over once, and labeled me as a freak. I decided that the next person she labeled I would try my damnedest to befriend, and she walked up to Kaleb and did the same thing. So in a way I suppose I have Harris to thank for introducing me to the best person I've ever known." Lily said, smiling at the memory.   
  
"Jennifer has a way of labeling people she doesn't even know." James agreed.   
  
"Well, Potter, so do you." Lily said, mildly surprised he hadn't realized.   
  
"What?"   
  
"Almost everyone does. People feel the need to categorize others. They need to be able to look at someone and say "Nerd/Popular/Goth/Jock/Geek/Freak" and think that they know everything about that person. I think that it scares people like Jennifer to think that people are more complicated than what label they give them. I mean, if you were to go up to Harris and say 'Tell me about Evans.' She would look at you strangely for a moment, and then say" Here Lily donned a high, whiny voice, "'She is such a freak, she dresses, like, way weird.' And that would be it for her. She thinks she knows me." Lily explained.  
  
James found himself agreeing with her, and wondering how many people he had judged and put aside without knowing.   
  
"Do you think that anyone truly knows anyone else?" James asked. "I mean, I know Remus and Sirius and Peter better than anyone else that I've come across, but they don't know everything about me, and I don't know everything about them. I don't know what they think about when we aren't pranking."   
  
"I think that if it comes to the point where, when your friend has a nightmare, all you have to do is look at them and know what it was that scared them so, that you truly know someone. If when you're all alone, you know exactly what your friend would be thinking or saying at that moment, then you know someone. That's the way I know Kaleb, that's the way she knows me. I can almost hear her right now." Lily smiled, comforted by the thought of her best friend.   
  
James subconsciously tightened his grip on Lily, deigning her truly remarkable. 


	7. Chapter Seven

(A/N Ok, I know this seems like its getting a bit mushy or cliched or whatever, but it won't stay this way for long, Lily is definitely not one for a lot of emotion.)   
  
"You've got to be kidding me! You actually think the Dementors are a GOOD idea?" Lily exclaimed, incredulous.   
  
The hours had passes and now the pair leaned against opposite walls of the closet, debating and discussing whatever came to mind.  
  
"If someone were to kill a family member of yours, wouldn't you want them punished?" James argued, and immediately realizing what he just said, snapped his mouth shut. His eyes were wide open, and he watched her, waiting for the eruption of tears.   
  
Lily merely gave him a Look, and replied cattily, "Potter, seeing as that's the boat I'm in, I can honestly say I wouldn't be able to condemn my parents' murderers to a lifetime in hell. I wouldn't be able to kill them myself or stand and watch as they lost their minds after years of exposure to the foulest creatures on the planet!"  
  
James nearly sighed in relief, then caught himself in time. "Whatever, my lioness."   
  
Lily visibly, even in the nearly nonexistent light, winced.   
  
James' eyebrows flew up and his hand was instantly on her wrist. "What is it Lils, are you ok? Are you getting claustrophobic again?" The panic in his voice was faint, but Lily knew it was there.   
  
"Alright Potter, you really want to know? I have absolutely no idea why I'm even telling you this, but here it is. When I was small, my most favorite person in the entire world was my Aunt Lucille. She was fantastic, always full of fun ideas and just, so free.   
  
"Well, when I was about eight years old, my Aunt married a man named Gregory. After that I saw my Aunt less and less, and the times that I did see her she was stretched and worn and tired. She had this look in her eyes, like she was a caged animal.   
  
"I've been told since then that it all happened so fast. After her wedding Gregory became very possessive, demanding, jealous, insane. He kept her as a prisoner in her own home because she was 'his Lucy'. One day she came home from the market about a half an hour later than she expected. She had had car trouble and had to walk the rest of the way home. That was the first day he hit her.   
  
"Instead of telling someone about it, instead of going for help, she bore it. She shrugged it off, saying he didn't mean it and that he was just too sweet. Well, after that first time it took less to set him off. Either the house was too hot or the tea was too bitter. The last time," Here Lily broke off in bitter laughter. "The last time all it was, was that he couldn't find his other sock. HIS OTHER SOCK. He threw her across the room, and she slammed into the wall. She went from free to caged to gone in a matter of weeks. That was the day my Aunt died, and that was the day I've hated being thought of as belonging to someone else!" Lily's voice grew in intensity, but her emerald eyes seemed misty, remembering.   
  
James leaned his head back against the wall. "Man…" he said, and trailed off. "You're a sight more complex than you're made out to be."  
  
"I should hope so. I mean, although it is a thrilling topic, I don't think about death all day." She deadpanned, knowing the stereotypes.  
  
"So what do you think about?"  
  
Lily pondered this for a moment, then shrugged. "Everything. Anything that you could possibly think about, I do, and usually all at once. I once spent an entire night searching for the answer to the Mad Hatter's riddle, in Alice in Wonderland." Lily smiled.   
  
"What?" James questioned, arching a brow in that quizzical way of his.   
  
"Alice in Wonderland, it's a muggle children's tale, and the Mad Hatter asks Alice, 'Why is a raven like a writing desk?', well, it was supposed to be a riddle without an answer, but I found it." Lily smiled, pleased with herself.   
  
"And what is it?"  
  
"Oh, it isn't anything remarkably witty or anything, but they both produce flat notes." Lily shrugged.   
  
James laughed at this, finding the riddle amusing, much to Lily's surprise.   
  
"So, Mr. Potter, you can't be as shallow or one dimensional as you seem, so what do you think about?" Lily questioned, arching a red brow.   
  
James shrugged in the minimal light. "Normal things, Voldemort, Death Eaters, death, friends, pranks, love, hate, war, meaning of life, that sort of thing."   
  
Lily nodded. "You know, Jamie, those aren't things most people our age think about. I doubt Harris spends much time pondering how long it takes before our forces give and Voldemort gains total control."  
  
"I know, but it just seems so natural a thing to think about, I mean, there is a war out there, one I plan to join, so I think about the enemy." James said.  
  
"You plan to become an auror?"   
  
"No, I plan to become a death eater." James deadpanned, but with a wicked grin on his face.  
  
"Oh shut up. I'm thinking about auror training myself. I'm not comfortable with the thought of sitting around and doing nothing while people are dying."   
  
"So!" James said, deliberately changing the subject, there was too much worry in the world to bring it into a little broom closet. "Have any of the mere mortals at Hogwarts caught your eye yet?"  
  
"Jamie, you know you sound exactly like a girl when you do that, right?"  
  
"Yep. I'm aware."  
  
"Just checking. Anyway, no not really. I mean some of the guys here are physically attractive yes, but none really get me all hot and bothered or anything." Lily, who wasn't about to lie to herself, was not about to spill everything to the one person who made her even remotely hot and bothered. 


	8. Chapter Eight

(A/N Thanks for all the reviews! And yes, they will be coming out of the closet soon!)  
  
"I'm beginning to feel bad about locking Lily in that closet, I mean, she IS claustrophobic after all." Kaleb said, as the chocolate frog her wand was pointed at spun through the air.   
  
"So should we let them out?" Sirius asked, sprawled across a couch in the Gryffindor Common Room.   
  
"Nah. I just hope she hasn't bloodied him up too much." Kaleb mused.   
  
  
(Meanwhile)  
  
"So what about you, Don Juan. Any little witches, or hey, wizards running around that get your knickers in a twist?" Lily asked, grinning wickedly.   
  
"You know you sound exactly like a girl when you do that?" James said in a high pitched voice.   
  
"Well I'd better, I mean, I have to balance it out with all those other times that I sound like a man." Lily laughed.   
  
James grinned a moment, as if considering. "Yeah, I suppose."   
  
"Well, if you really want to know…sort of. I mean, like you said, some people here are very physically attractive, but honestly…they tend to have the brain capacity of a banana. And that's sort of a turn-off." James shrugged.   
  
"Oh really? I wouldn't have thought that having above a double-digit IQ mattered to you in a girl. Hey, the less bright she is the easier to bed, right?" Lily said bitterly.   
  
Lily caught a flash of pain in James' eyes, before he had the chance to mask it.   
  
"Is that really what you think of me?" James' voice was supposed to sound steely, but wavered slightly at the end.   
  
Lily tossed her head back. "I've seen it too many times. Some guy flirts with a girl, she thinks it's love, so she gives him the most precious thing that she can. Not just her body, Potter, because it isn't just a shag to a girl like it is to a guy. It's…making love. By giving her body she's giving her soul. And I've heard stories about you Mr. Potter, so don't think I think you're innocent."  
  
"You, of all people, should know not to listen to rumors. I've never 'shagged' anyone. I've only ever been with one person like that, and she played me, not the other way around. Girls aren't just victims." James said, narrowing his eyes, as if he were trying to set the wall on fire.   
  
"I'm sorry." Lily said quietly. She looked down at the floor, trying to imagine what that would feel like.   
  
James sighed and touched Lily's hand. "Don't worry about it, Lily. I understand why you would think that about me. I just hope that you believe me when I tell you it isn't true."   
  
Lily smiled. "I know it isn't true. But man, Jamie, why aren't you like this when people are around? I wasted a lot of time hating you."   
  
James gave her a lop-sided grin that, to her utter shame, made butterflies appear in her stomach. "If it makes you feel any better, I hated you too. But I'm not like this around people because most people aren't like you. I can't be me around them because…because it just wouldn't work. There are a lot of expectations I have to meet, one of which is to be Popular and Quidditch Captain and become Head Boy some day."  
  
Lily shrugged, she really didn't want to get into it with him. "No one should dictate to you, who you have to be. Be who you feel like being."   
  
James shook his head, and wracked his mind for a different topic. "So, when do you think they'll remember us and let us out?"  
  
Lily smiled wryly. "About a year after we've been haunting Hogwarts as ghosts."   
  
  
"Ugh, its boring around here without Lils. Let's just let them out before I go insane from exposure to you three idiots." Kaleb drawled.   
  
"You wound me, madam!" Sirius said, pressing his hand to his chest in mock offense.   
  
Kaleb rolled her eyes. "I'm certain that I do. But come on, give me her wand, I'll keep it from her for a while so she won't kill you." She held out her hand and then tucked the wand into her boot.   
  
"Oh alright. Come along." He whistled at Remus as one would a dog.   
  
Remus arched one perfectly shaped brow. "Shouldn't I be doing that to you?"   
  
  
Inside the closet Lily and James were having a staring contest.   
  
"Ha! You blinked, and I win!" Lily shouted triumphantly.   
  
"I did not! And how on earth would you be able to tell if I did? Its bloody dark in here!" James protested.   
  
"You're just a sore loser, you know you could not challenge the prowess of the great Lily Evans." She grinned, haughtily.   
  
James groaned and began to hit his head against the wall.   
  
  
"It was this one, right down this hall. We're only 50 meters away you git!" Remus exclaimed to Sirius, gesturing to the Marauder's Map.   
  
"I knew that! Come on, we'll have them out in a jiff." Sirius redeemed himself.   
  
  
"Jamie, stop that, when you get a concussion I won't be able to do anything for it, you prat!" Lily laughed and slipped her hand around back of his head to stop him from hurting himself. In doing so she was forced to lean forward.   
  
James stopped the movement, entranced by the emerald eyes in front of him.   
  
Slowly, agonizingly slowly, they moved forward, until their eyes were half-lidded and their lips were a hair's breadth away…  
  
  
Kaleb swung the door open, to the sight of Lily and James about to kiss, then throwing themselves backwards, away from each other. "Ooh, shall we leave you two to it, then?" 


	9. Chapter Nine

(A/N lol, yeah I know I'm evil. And I know that the whole locking-them-in-a-closet trip is very over-used, but it was just such a Sirius thing to do, and I needed to force Lily and James to really get to know each other, so, voila! Lock them in a closet! You're all going to hate me at the end of this one, too, heh)  
  
Lily's face flushed for a moment, then subsided as she glared at Kaleb. "You, my love, are in for it." She clambered to her feet, then helped a bright-red James to his.  
  
The pair stepped out of the closet, and Lily whirled on the group, eyes flashing. "What the hell is wrong with you people? Kaleb, you know I'm claustrophobic. What would you have done if you came back whenever the hell you decided to and I was passed out on the floor. James and I didn't have our wands, so he couldn't have done anything. There was absolutely no excuse for that."   
  
Sirius shrank back a bit from the girl in black. "Sorry, Lily." He scuffed his foot on the ground sheepishly.   
  
"Yeah? Well just wait, you're going to be even more sorry after I'm through with you." Lily said dangerously, and then her entire demeanor changed, she was calm, cool, collected, and gestured down the hallway. "Shall we?"  
  
Everyone present save Kaleb gaped at Lily's sudden mood swing.   
  
"We shall, my love." Kaleb said and she and Lily walked down the hall towards the Gryffindor Common Room. "Oh, here's your wand by the way." Kaleb offered the polished wood to Lily, who spun it on her fingers, much as a cowboy would a gun, and slipped it into her pocket.   
  
Back by the closet, the three Marauders rounded on their bespectacled friend.  
  
Peter opened his mouth, then closed it.   
  
Remus was rubbing his brow and muttering to himself, in what sounded like French.   
  
Sirius, on the other hand, was sputtering questions at James like he knew the meaning of life. "What? How? Were you two…did you almost…how in the name of all that is sacred did that come about?!"  
  
James shifted his weight to his back foot. "Well my dumbass of a friend locked me and Lily in the closet. We talked. Nothing else happened."  
  
Remus made a noise that sounded suspiciously like a snort. "Right, nothing else happened. We didn't see what could have started a major snog session between you and the Ice Queen. Nope, not at all. What is Sirius going on about."  
  
"Listen, nothing happened. And even if it would have, it didn't. So let's just get back before Lily gets too far into her plans to castrate you. I can't believe you locked a claustrophobe in a closet. That's just…wrong." James shrugged and the group hurried down the hall after Lily and Kaleb.   
  
  
"Sorry I interrupted you, love." Kaleb said, smiling wickedly. It really wasn't that big of a deal to her, Lily could snog whomever she wanted for all Kaleb cared. She knew better than to get hurt by becoming too attached.   
  
"It's not a big deal, mate, it was only an 'almost kiss'. No harm, no foul, right?" Lily said, smiling at her best friend.   
  
"I suppose. Ah, speak of the devil, here comes the Prep Patrol now." Kaleb said, bemused as the Marauders caught up with them.   
  
"Just couldn't bear to be away?" Lily asked, arching her brow at James. "We just spent a day together, you should be sick of me by now."  
  
James flushed slightly, and grinned. "Nah Lils, I think I'll keep you around for a while."   
  
He rested his elbow on her shoulder nearest to him, as they walked into the Common Room.  
  
Lily rolled her eyes. "Goody for me."  
  
James just smiled at her, and Kaleb stifled a snicker.   
  
Across the Common Room three pairs of brown eyes watched Lily and James, glaring at the laid-back redhead.   
  
Lily ducked out from under James' arm and said brightly, "Well Kaleb, love, I'm not used to being forced into anyone's company, so I'm going for a walk around the corridors, see you later."   
  
She lifted her hand in mock salute and bounded out of the Common Room.   
  
"Being with you for a whole day could have been damaging to her health." Kaleb mused, looking at James.   
  
"Bite me, Kale." James said, grinning.   
  
"I think I'll pass, thanks much." Kaleb drawled.   
  
  
Lily's involuntarily even tempo-ed steps tapped against the stone floor of the corridor, and she resisted the urge to get a soft-shoe routine in.   
  
'I spent a day with James Potter, and no blood was shed. Hmm, the Apocalypse will be arriving any minute now.' Lily thought, amused.   
  
'I don't suppose it was so terrible. He's a bit thick at times, but at least he has some semblance of a brain. He's rather insightful sometimes. But he is a prep, toys with girls…but he had his heart broken too. He is rather fetching, anyone can see that. But I absolutely refuse to fawn over that prep. It would be ridiculous.' Lily bit her lip, and stopped, mid-stride. She held her breath to stop the noise and listened intently.   
  
Sure enough unevenly timed taps were heading towards her, and it sounded like girls from the sound of the shoes, probably three from the rhythm.   
  
Lily continued down the hall, until she came to a corner, there she reached for her wand…and couldn't find it. Her eyes widened then narrowed as she looked up the corridor she had just walked through, searching for the piece of wood. When she looked up, three figures stood before her. They wore black hoods that hid their faces, and they were wearing robes that didn't even bear the Hogwarts seal, let alone the House seal.   
  
"Can I help you with anything, ladies?" Lily drawled, leaning back against the wall, her muscles tensing.   
  
"Well, first you could stop poisoning our school, mudblood, but my wager is that won't be happening." The middle figure said, in a hissing breathy sort of voice. Lily recognized the charm that had been used to alter her voice, and wondered why they went through such trouble so as not to be recognizable.   
  
"You could stop trying to weasel your way into a pureblood's line, wouldn't want to taint any blood." The one on the left hissed.   
  
"You could just lay down and die, save He Who Must Not Be Named a lot of effort, mudblood." The one on the right added.   
  
"Well, I'll keep those suggestions in mind. Must be off now, ta!" Lily said, and attempted to move past the three girls.   
  
"Oh, no, my pet. You're going to have to postpone your attempts at seducing James for a while, so we can 'play'." The one on the left said, maliciously, and shoved Lily back into the wall.   
  
'Great, cornered by three wacko's without a wand. Hope I leave a good-looking corpse.'  
  
Lily winced as her back hit the rough stone. She then ducked and dashed beyond the three girls. She had only made it about ten yards when she heard a voice hiss, "Accio!"  
  
Lily flew backwards, and slammed into the wall again, and the taste of blood filled her mouth.   
  
"Want to play, little mudblood?" The third girl said.   
  
Lily spat some blood onto the girl's robe. "Bring it on." She challenged.   
  
The second girl lifted her wand. "Now, we wouldn't want you to run away and spoil the game, so let's just keep you here." Lily couldn't catch the incantation the girl spoke, but Lily could barely move after she spoke it. Physically you wouldn't have noticed any difference, but try as she might, she couldn't run away.   
  
The first girl's fist flew out and struck Lily in the ribs, stealing her breath. A spell was uttered and Lily the bones in her left forearm being crushed by an invisible vice.   
  
She clenched her teeth, because she would not give them the pleasure of watching her squirm, or hearing her scream. She was strong. She always had been.   
  
Fists and spells flew at her, and she felt the blood streaming from open wounds, bruises formed on almost every part of her body, but still she would not scream.   
  
"Come on, mudblood, cry for us, scream and beg for mercy. We may just let you go." The second girl taunted.   
  
Lily spat some of the ever-present pool of blood in her mouth at the three girls. "Look at the big strong witches, had to bind me with magic to beat me up. Sad, really." Lily said, and for the pain evident in it, it was the same as her usual cold demeanor.   
  
"Crucio!" The third girl cried out, in outrage, and Lily fell to the ground, pain wracking every nerve of her body. It was agony, it was hell. 'Let me die…please just let me die…' She silently begged the curse.   
  
"So Crucio doesn't hurt? Then let's just get rid of this little mudblood. Avada…." 


	10. Chapter Ten

(A/N Heehee, see I told you that you guys would hate me! You may not be too fond of me after this one…maybe…heh)   
  
"So Crucio doesn't hurt? Then let's just get rid of this little mudblood. Avada--" The girl whirled around at the noise that sounded like approaching footsteps. "Come on, let's get out of here, leave the mudblood!"   
  
The three left Lily there, bound to the spot and praying for death because of the pain inflicted by the still-present Crucio.   
  
Her wand was tossed at her, and Lily saw Minerva McGonagall rushing towards her just before she blacked out.   
  
  
Lily awoke in the Hospital Wing to see Kaleb slumped in a chair next to her, tear trails staining her face. Lily attempted to sit up, and hissed, drawing the attention of Madam Pomfrey.   
  
"Miss Evans! Oh, thank goodness, I thought you were going to sleep all week!" Pomfrey clucked at her, checking her pulse. "Back to normal I see. Good, good. That was quite a run-in, the Headmaster will be wanting a word with you, dear."   
  
"I'm sure he will." Lily drawled, her voice cracked and her mouth bleeding. "Wait, how long have I been here?"  
  
"About three days."  
  
"So how come I'm still all bloodied up, isn't this sort of your thing?" Lily questioned, arching a bruised brow.   
  
"Well, I couldn't heal those, the broken bones were a snap, but your…assailants…must have placed an anti-magic spell on your wounds, because I've tried hundreds of remedies, and none have done a thing. I believe you might have to wait for them to heal normally." Pomfrey said, flushing slightly. She was obviously frustrated at her inability to heal these abrasions.   
  
"I see. Don't worry about it. They're interesting I suppose, battle scars in a way." Lily said dryly, and Kaleb stirred.   
  
"Lily!" Kaleb said, as she opened her eyes.  
  
"Hello there, sleepy head." Lily smirked.   
  
Kaleb rolled her eyes, then moved as if to hug her. Thinking better of it, she sat back instead. "So I can't leave you alone for five minutes without you getting into trouble. What was it this time, a dragon? Had to have been, nothing else could've taken you." Kaleb teased.  
  
"Yep, three big reptilian things." Lily smiled.   
  
Just then the door to the Hospital Wing opened and the Marauders, minus Peter who was off trying to find out who could have done, walked in.   
  
Lily merely ignored their presence and turned her attention to Kaleb. "So, how'd you get Pomfrey to let you stay here with me?"  
  
"I told her that if she didn't, I'd hurt myself badly enough that I'd have to stay in here." Kaleb said, nonchalant.   
  
Lily knew she was completely serious, Kaleb would do anything for her. And Lily would do the same for Kaleb.   
  
Remus Lupin politely cleared his throat, to announce their presence. Lily simply smirked. "Well?" She questioned.   
  
"We uh, we brought these for you, Lils." Sirius said, and placed a vase of lilies on the table next to her.   
  
Lily smiled wryly, causing her lip to split further and fresh blood to flow. "You realize that lilies represent death, don't you?"   
  
Sirius flushed slightly.   
  
"So do you three have a point for being here?" Lily asked. She was having a difficult time coping with the idea of more friends that simply Kaleb.   
  
"Lily, shut up." Remus said, and pulled up a chair next to her bed. "Why are all of these cuts and bruises still here, didn't Pomfrey attend to them?"   
  
"She said that whoever it was that attacked me probably used some spell so that they have to heal naturally." Lily shrugged.   
  
James, who hadn't said a word up until this point, looked Lily in the face, his eyes somber. "Lily, I don't really know what happened, nobody would tell us anything…but…god Lily, I'm sorry, I'm so so sorry. Jesus…" He whispered, voice hoarse.   
  
Lily made a rather odd picture, blood red hair and pale skin, emerald eyes and gashes and bruises covering her form. "You haven't done anything wrong, James, so don't apologize. I'm actually rather glad these are still here, I want to see if I can get a reaction out of anyone, see if I can figure out who it was…"   
  
"What happened, Lily?" Sirius asked eyes traveling up and down her arms, which were bloody and battered.   
  
"I believe that's what Professor Dumbledore wants to know, isn't it?" Lily said, loudly enough for the Headmaster, who had just entered the Hospital Wing, to hear.   
  
Albus smiled and approached the girl. "Miss Evans, you are correct. I do need an account of the incident. Minerva informs me that there was a binding spell on you, but that you had only lost consciousness after she arrived."  
  
"I…professor, I do not think I can describe it…tell you what happened. Words seem to fail me…Remus, hand me that bedpan, will you?" Lily said, extending her hand.   
  
Sirius looked uncomfortable as Remus complied. "Um, should we give you a minute?"   
  
Lily laughed, a dry, coarse sound. "No you git, I'm going to use this as a…makeshift pensieve, I've read a great deal about them, so this should work." She lifted her wand to her head, and when she pulled it away, a strand of silvery…goo…came with it, and she placed it in the bedpan.   
  
"That should do it. Just…look. All of you can, I don't care anymore." Lily said, and sat back.   
  
The five people that weren't confined to the bed gathered around the bedpan. And as each one of them slumped forwards Lily knew that they were in her memory of…the Incident.   
  
Lily waited patiently, watching the group before her. As the memory ended, they sat back, wakened to reality.   
  
Kaleb was looking murderous, her hands were clenched, and Lily could almost hear her plotting how to get her hands on a book of curses from the Restricted Section of the library.   
  
Sirius was simply…aghast, it was as if he were in shock, having difficulty processing what he had seen.   
  
Albus had closed his eyes, and his expression was so guarded, that Lily couldn't read him.   
  
Remus…Remus was looking at her oddly, and she knew that he could relate to her. What had happened to her had happened because she was considered beneath other wizards…he had been discriminated against as well, so he knew.   
  
James looked as if he were about to have a coronary. He looked so torn between anger, guilt, and compassion that he hardly knew what to do.   
  
Kaleb finally broke the silence. "I'll kill them. I will hunt them down, and I will kill them."   
  
Lily shook her head. "Don't Kaleb. I wouldn't want you to get put in Azkaban for something so silly as this. Besides, I think the wheels are turning in the Headmaster's mind."   
  
"You were very brave, Miss Evans. The Sorting Hat made no mistake when placing you in Gryffindor." Albus said, simply. 


	11. Chapter Eleven

(A/N I know that last chapter wasn't much of a cliffy, but I figured I'd be kind to all of you. Thanks for all the reviews! And Musicizdbest, thank you for the info! Oh my god! Yes! Oh wait…June 21st? AAAAH, so far away! But I'm glad the darn thing is finally DONE!)  
  
"I wasn't brave, Professor. I just stood there, I tried to run twice and then I just stood there. I was weak. And I didn't even notice that my wand was gone until it was too late, so I was weak, and I was stupid." Lily said, her voice dripping with venom.   
  
"Lily, you were wandless, and bound by magic, that isn't cowardly. Besides, you were challenging them the entire time 'Bring it on' you said, then you TAUNTED them. They were fully prepared to kill you and you egged them on. I'm not sure if that was extremely brave, or what." Remus said.   
  
"Lily…" Sirius started, then closed his mouth, unsure of what to say.   
  
"This is entirely my fault." James said simply.   
  
Lily rolled her eyes. "Listen, Potter, not everything is about you. Unless you had some mystical hand in making sure I was born a mudblood, don't get your knickers in a twist."   
  
Sirius' eyes flashed, and he grasped her right wrist, managing to avoid her wounds. "Don't you ever call yourself that, do you hear me? Never."  
  
Lily was slightly taken aback at Sirius' intensity. "It makes no difference. I am what I am, I'm not ashamed of being muggle-born, so what does it matter what it's termed? Anyway, that's a bit beside the point. When can I get out of here, Professor?" Lily asked, pointedly avoiding Sirius' eyes.   
  
"Poppy said you should be able to leave in a day or so, the bruises and cuts will still be there, my dear, but they shouldn't hurt as much." Dumbledore said kindly.   
  
Lily rolled her eyes. "Why do you think I'm suddenly fragile? I can handle the little bit of pain these bruises inflict." Her emerald eyes shone and she looked almost murderous, but mostly just determined.   
  
"Don't go all macho Lily, I know you aren't made of glass, but you can still feel pain." Kaleb said, dryly.   
  
"Never said I couldn't, love. Feel it? Yes. Tolerate it? Even more." Lily said, wishing for the absence of all of these people.   
  
"Well, Miss Evans, I believe Poppy will have our heads if we do not allow you to rest now. You may leave tomorrow. Sleep well, Miss Evans." Dumbledore rose from his seat and gestured that the others leave as well.  
  
"Drink this, Miss Evans." Pomfrey said kindly, and Lily found herself drifting away after the green stuff was forced down her throat.   
  
She leaned back, and became rather limp, all the tension having left her body.  
  
"She looks so different when she's asleep." Sirius commented.   
  
"Very...calm. Like she doesn't have to fight the world anymore." Remus agreed.   
  
James leaned over, and trailed his fingers through her hair. "Sleep well, Lily." He said softly, and kissed her forehead.   
  
He stood up straight then, and Kaleb commented, "She'd have Avada-ed you if she was awake when you did that."   
  
"Probably." James said, smiling.   
  
The quartet left the Hospital Wing, leaving their battered friend to sleep.   
  
  
The following evening the Marauders and Kaleb could be found in the Gryffindor Common Room, bored out of their minds and worried just as much.  
  
"So. Boring. With. You. Twerps." Kaleb groaned, accentuating each word with a small explosion courtesy of her wand.   
  
"Why don't we just talk about it? We're all thinking about it, all stewing over it, so why don't we just talk about it?" Sirius asked, fiddling with a ring on his finger nervously.   
  
"Fine. Let's talk about it. Let's begin with the obvious. Who could hold that much against Lily? Who would do this to her?" James asked, making his hair stand on end even more by continually running his hand through it.   
  
"Oh wise up, Potter. You heard the things they were saying, any pureblood with a superiority complex and a couple of friends who were the same could have done it." Kaleb drawled. "And I'm not saying just Slytherins. All of that stuff about bad wizards only coming out of Slytherin is complete crap. Half of Voldie's followers are former Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs."  
  
Sirius' eyes widened at this.   
  
"Oh don't look so shocked. Just because Hufflepuffs are loyal, doesn't mean they can't be loyal to that evil Git." Kaleb elaborated.   
  
"And they're obviously fangirls of Jamie's. They were mentioning him an awful lot for it to be unrelated." Remus added.   
  
"Yeah, like that narrows it down. Pureblood girls, in pretty much any house, that have a thing for James. That's only every pureblood girl in Hogwarts." Sirius said, aggravated.   
  
"Have you heard? That freak Evans got beat up, and it's about time too. I was getting really sick of that loser strutting around Hogwarts like she belongs." Jennifer said, talking loudly to a group of "popular" fifth years.   
  
Kaleb's eyes turned dark, she gritted her teeth and ground out, "Oh no she did not."  
  
Remus' eyes widened. "Kaleb, chill."   
  
"No way, not this time. Harris is getting what's coming to her." Kaleb said darkly. Kaleb stood up, shoulders back, and strode forward as a predator stalking prey.   
  
Her blue eyes gleamed and she said silkily, and angrily, "Harris."  
  
The blonde stood up, and turned to face Kaleb cockily. "Like, ew. What do you think gives you the right to talk to me, Brandon."  
  
With no hint of humor or restraint, Kaleb's fist flew forward, and crashed into Harris's jaw, sending the ditz sprawling on the floor.   
  
Jennifer sat up and spat blood onto her hand. "What the hell was that, Brandon!"   
  
"That was for daring to say anything at all about Lily, you two-bit tramp." Kaleb said dangerously. "And I will not hesitate to do far worse than give you a bruise if I ever hear of you doing it again. Do you understand?"  
  
Harris blushed angrily, and moved to get up.   
  
"No, just stay on the ground, it's where you belong, isn't it?" Kaleb sneered.   
  
(A/N I am so sorry about how long this took! I'll be better, I promise!) 


	12. Chapter Twelve

(A/N Alright, all of my chapters are pretty much 1000 words long, its just a little basis that I have, and these chapters are posted when I have time to get them up, which isn't all the time. I'm a freshman in High School, I'm taking all sophomore and junior classes, I'm in the production of ANNIE that my school is putting on, so this story is pretty much taking a back seat to all of that. It has to. But it will be continued, just when I have time.)  
  
Kaleb turned her back on the girl on the floor, and returned to her seat with the Marauders. Her blue eyes shone with a rather righteous rage, and she twirled her wand on her fingers, more out of tension than anything else.   
  
"Kaleb, what the hell was that?" Sirius asked, rather startled at the brunette's actions.   
  
"That was me sticking up for the absolute best person I know, who isn't here to do it for herself because three little closed-minded bints beat her to an inch of her life, and tried to kill her. That's what that was." Kaleb's voice was smooth, low, and deadly cold.   
  
"McGonagall is going to flip." James warned, inwardly cheering.   
  
"I don't think Harris would tell her. I mean, she'll obviously try and get back at Kaleb, but she won't want anyone to know that could get her in trouble for trying." Remus reasoned.   
  
"Oh, let her tell. Let her try and get back at me. The day I'm afraid of her is the day I join Voldie." Kaleb said, disgusted.   
  
"Hey, guys. Do you think that Harris could have had anything to do with what happened to Lily? I mean, I didn't think that anyone really knew what had happened to her…and yet there she was talking about it." James asked, furrowing his brow.   
  
"But she's a Gryffindor. I've never heard of a Gryffindor aligning with You Know Who." Sirius said, skeptically.   
  
"And I don't think she has enough magical power to have been able to hurt Lily." Kaleb said, arching her brow and studying the girl, now talking about some girl's robes.   
  
"Maybe it wasn't her that was out there…maybe she just asked someone to do it for her. Probably threw in that Lily was a muggle-born and everything…most potential Death Eaters would jump at the chance to prove themselves." Remus mused.   
  
"They had mentioned James an awful lot, and we all know that she's obsessed with him." Sirius said.   
  
"Wait a minute, are we saying that these girls attacked Lily because some immature ditz was jealous that James was drooling over Lils?" Kaleb asked.   
  
"Hey! There is no drool!" James said, indignant.   
  
"May as well be, mate. We all know that you fancy her to death. And that isn't the point! The point is that Lily was attacked because of some jealous schoolgirl with a crush." Remus put in.   
  
"And that's only if we're right at all. For all we know we're just wasting time with theories that are only leading us further from the truth!" James exclaimed.   
  
"What else are we supposed to do except theorize?" Kaleb snapped.   
  
Just then the Common Room entrance opened, revealing Lily, dressed in black elephant pants and a green tank top with a black tie. The dark colors of her clothing made her pale skin seem ethereal, and made her abrasions and bruises all the more noticeable.   
  
A few heads swiveled around to see who had entered, and then went back to their friends, all except for Kaleb. "Lily!" She cried, a grin lighting up her face.   
  
"The one and only!" Lily said, striking a pose. She walked over to a large armchair next to the one Kaleb was sitting on, and sat down, her steps showed a slight limp, due to a bruise on her right hip.   
  
Lily slung her legs over the side of the chair and leaned back, completely relaxed. "So. What've I missed?"   
  
"Well, a few minutes ago Kaleb punched Harris." Sirius remarked, offhandedly.   
  
A slow, sly grin spread across Lily's face. "Yeah? What'd the ditz do to get you riled up, Love?"   
  
"She was saying shit about you." Kaleb replied, nonchalantly.   
  
"Hmm. Sorry I missed all the action. Oh well. C'est la vie." Lily shrugged.   
  
One of Jennifer Harris' best friends, and probably the second most popular girl in school, Amber Hart, walked up to the Marauders, and completely ignored Lily and Kaleb's presence.   
  
"Hey guys! You're coming to the Lake Party on Saturday, right?" Amber asked, twirling a piece of blonde hair around her index finger.   
  
"Sure. Don't we always?" James responded, flashing a grin.   
  
"Great!" Amber said happily. Another of Amber's friends, Kelly Wright, joined the aforementioned blonde.   
  
"Hey guys, haven't seen too much of you around lately." Kelly said, fluttering her eyelashes.   
  
"Don't you sort of have to be French to pull that off?" Kaleb asked Lily, cocking her head to the side.   
  
"I've always thought so." Lily agreed, nodding.   
  
"We've had a rather…busy week." Remus explained, gesturing to Lily.   
  
Amber tilted her head, obviously confused. "Janet…right?" She ventured, wrinkling her nose.   
  
Lily laughed, a short, harsh laugh. "Not even close."  
  
"Oh well. Not important." Amber shrugged.   
  
"Hey, Amber. Aren't you dating Gavin Smith?" Lily asked, innocently.   
  
"Yeah…I am. So paws off!" Amber said, huffily.   
  
"Oh, it's not my paws you have to worry about. On the way up here I saw little Gavin getting rather…friendly…with Narcissa DuBois, in the little Charms classroom down the hall from the Library." Lily said sweetly.   
  
"What?! I'll get that two-bit tramp! And Narcissa too!" Amber shrieked.   
  
Amber and Kelly rushed out of the Common Room, towards the classroom they wouldn't find for a long time…like they had any idea where the Library was.   
  
"I'm such a good person." Lily said, smiling to herself.   
  
"Oh yes, a real saint, Lily." Remus said, rolling his eyes.   
  
"What? Wouldn't you want to know if your boyfriend were cheating on you?" Lily insisted.   
  
"ANYWAY! You girls are coming to the party on Saturday, right?" Sirius asked.   
  
"No, why ever would we?" Kaleb said, looking at Sirius as if he had grown a second head.   
  
"That's a party reserved for 'Popular People' only." Lily said, disinterestedly.   
  
"Well, you guys are friends with us now, you can be popular." Peter said, as if he were bestowing a gift.   
  
"Ugh, I think I might hurl." Kaleb said, making a face.   
  
"You guys don't seem to get it. We aren't sad, dejected little girls that are all depressed because they've been shunned by popular people. Frankly, all of you preps tend to bore the hell out of us. You simply do not know how to party." Lily shrugged, being frank.   
  
"I bet that all you guys do is play water polo and swim around, or maybe steal people's clothes or whatever. That sounds incredibly, incredibly boring. And rather stupid." Kaleb added.   
  
"So you guys don't want to go?" James asked.   
  
"No, we don't. We don't want to go to your little party. We don't want to be popular. We don't want to conform to your preppy little world, thanks much." Kaleb drawled.   
  
"Alright, alright. We get it. What do you plan to do instead?" Sirius asked.   
  
Lily just stared at him. "Doesn't Saturday mean anything to you?"  
  
"Yeah, it means the Lake Party."  
  
"No you idiot. Think of the moon." Lily said, frustrated.   
  
Remus, who had been sitting there, silent, waiting for them to remember, smiled.   
  
"Oh! Oh God! Moony, I am so sorry. I completely forgot!" James exclaimed.   
  
"Don't worry about it. I almost forgot myself." Remus said, shrugging.   
  
"And we," Lily began proudly. "Will be accompanying you. So you won't be alone."  
  
"But he isn't--" Peter began, and was cut off by a quick jab to his ribs.   
  
"How are you two going to go with him?" James asked, curiously.   
  
(A/N -dramatic music- How are Lily and Kaleb going to join Remus on the full moon? Are they insane? ARE THEY RACCOONS IN DISGUISE?! Heh, guess we'll find out next time on…buh buh buuuuuuuum…DaLI!) 


	13. Chapter Thirteen

(A/N Thanks for all the reviews! I've had a lot of people making guesses about how Lily and Kaleb are going to join Remus on the full moon…and so many of you think they are Raccoons! How did you guess? Hehe, just kidding. I guess you'll just have to read and find out!)  
  
"Well, Kaleb and I have been working on this theory for a long time. You've heard of the Animagus Transformation, right?" Lily asked, her voice low.   
  
Sirius smirked. "Vaguely. Don't tell me that you two are Animagi."  
  
"Not quite. See, I've been looking at the whole process. And what occurs to me is that the end potion itself is the ending factor in whether or not a person can change to another form at will. The spells to determine an animal and to be able to change initially are really only a test of power. And so, instead of going through the rather tortuous rituals, we're going to do the spells, and between the two of us, we should be able to generate enough magical power to shift forms." Lily said, excitedly.   
  
"Why not just go through with the whole process?" Remus asked, interested. "I mean, you can't know that this would work, and you could end up severely deformed or even splinched, in a manner of speaking."   
  
"Now there is the ingenious part. I've altered the spells so that our animal forms would grow in our souls, as a sort of new being. It will take a rather long while, but the animal form should grow within us naturally, so it will seem more like being both an animal and a human at once, when in animal form." Lily seemed pleased with herself, and rightly so. She had just laid out her theory on Animagi, that would become the standard thesis and process for the transformation three decades after her death.   
  
"Sounds really impressive." James said, nodding appreciatively. "And if this doesn't work?"  
  
"Oh it'll work. Too many things can go wrong for it not to work." Kaleb said, reasonably.  
  
"Your logic…is your own." Sirius said, rather bemused.   
  
Lily waved her hand in dismissal, and then asked suddenly, "What day is it, today?"  
  
"It's Thursday. Two days until Saturday." Remus said, staring at the nearly full moon visible through the window.   
  
"Why do you ask?" James asked, concerned.   
  
"N-nothing. I just…got a little…disoriented. I'm fine. No worries." Lily said and grinned wickedly. "Is Jamesie worried about little old me? Oh no! Someone might find out and try and kill me!" She laughed.   
  
"God, don't joke about that Lily." James said, eyes dark and guarded.   
  
Lily shrugged. "Sorry, mate. I forget that not everyone shares in my twisted sense of humor." She leaned her head back, and stared at the ceiling.   
  
"I thought it was amusing." Kaleb shrugged.  
  
Sirius rolled his eyes. "You would."   
"You three failed to kill the mudblood." A slow, rasping voice is intimidating in the eerie glow of the green fire burning in the center of the room.   
  
"We were…interrupted, sir."   
  
"That is no excuse." A towering figure, swathed in black, steps forward.   
  
"It will not happen again, sir."  
  
"She was by herself, she had no wand, she was under a binding spell, how in Salazar's name did you manage to bollocks this up?" The figure seems a trifle less regal, a trifle less commanding when using Brit-slang.   
  
"A Professor, McGonagall, came and stopped us. We could not complete the spell."  
  
"I don't want to hear excuses. Not while that mudblood is still strutting around the school." Red, enchanted eyes leer out from a black hood. "Am I making myself clear?"  
  
"Yes, sir."  
"Now tell me again…why can't you use your dorm for this?" Sirius asked, petulantly.   
  
"Oh, come off it, Black. There are too many girls running around our dorm for any of this to have the slightest bit of concentration associated with it. Why, does it bother you having a couple of girls up here? It's not like we're going to rape you, for heaven's sake." Lily said, exasperated.   
  
"Alright, alright." Sirius sighed and flopped onto his bed.  
  
"Thank you." Kaleb said.   
  
"Remus is in the Shack now." James said, peering out the window.   
  
"Of course he is, it's…7:30, moonrise is in an hour, he's always in there an hour and a half before moonrise." Kaleb said, waving the observation off.   
  
"How did you know that? The Headmaster and Madam Pomfrey have been running around like this is the best kept secret in Hogwarts. Just how did you two figure everything out?" Peter asked.   
  
"It's not difficult. You could set your watch by Remus' little monthly routine." Kaleb said. "Now do you mind if we try and do this now? Our dorm might have been quieter."   
  
"Come on Kaleb, sit down." Lily said, as she followed her own direction.  
  
The two sat facing each other, silver goblets holding the potion for the transformation sitting in front of them. Symbols were drawn on the floor in chalk and herbs, each symbol standing for a different part of existence and life.   
  
"Magus, audio vos placitum." Lily and Kaleb's voices are ethereal, and rather unnerving in the light cast by the now glowing symbols on the floor.   
  
The Marauders watch, silent, as the two girls perform the ritual so different from the one they themselves performed…it was Lily's magic that changed it.   
  
"Gero bestia penitus animus! Gero bestia penitus animus!"  
  
The girls chanted for many minutes, until the goblets in front of them glowed red.   
  
The girls perfunctorily drank the potion, and the room was dark.   
  
When Lily brought light back to the room, the goblets and markings were gone, and all that was left to prove the ritual occurred was the rapidly fading runes on each girl's forehead.   
  
"We've done it. Now to see if it works." Lily mumbled. She closed her eyes, as if to meditate, and her form melted into that of a lioness, a reflection of her soul.   
  
Kaleb turned to her friend and smiled, and promptly melted into a panther.   
  
Sirius smiled at this display. "Kindred spirits."   
  
(A/N I know you were all expecting a doe, but that was just too over-used. Besides, lions kick.)   
  
Alright, DaLi is going on something of a hiatus for a while, it'll be back eventually, but my play rehearsals have been picking up and I've got projects and tests coming up soo...this is being put on hold for a while, sorry! 


	14. Chapter Fourteen

(A/N Dreaming One, I never really thought of Lily as a self-insertion, whether it be what I wish I was like or not. It was once said that 'True artists create things of beauty and put nothing of themselves into them', and I guess that that was how I was looking at it. I am nothing like Lily, I was taking aspects of people around me, and of Harry and a lot from Draco actually, and created this girl. I hope this doesn't come off as a self-insert fic, because I really hate those, and I try to keep mine as little like those as possible.)  
  
Lily and Kaleb shifted back into their human visages, and looked incredibly pleased, if completely unsurprised.   
  
"That was amazing, Lily, Kaleb." Peter said, in awe.   
  
"So what am I? It's a little difficult to tell, or at least it was for me." Lily asked, interestedly.  
  
"You're a lioness, rather ironic really. What with you being a Gryffindor, and your nickname being Lionne." Sirius said, amused.   
  
"And me?" Kaleb asked, curious and excited.   
  
"You're a panther, Kaleb. It makes sense that the two of you would be the same sort of animal." James said. "You're two of a kind."  
  
"So, hail us, praise us, do what you will, but on the way to the shack. Pronto." Lily dictated, and the group made their way out of the Gryffindor Tower in an attempt to be with Remus when he changed.   
"I just want to warn the two of you, before we go in. Watching him change…it's terrible. He's in so much pain…and the skin breaks and bones reform. And you sit there and watch and know that there isn't anything you can go about it and--" Sirius said, his eyes growing wet, and his voice becoming intense.   
  
"Sirius." James interrupted, looking gently at his friend. "He said that having us there helps. And maybe it does, ok? But there isn't any use worrying about it, all that matters is that we keep him from hurting himself."   
  
"Yeah…I know, Prongs." Sirius said, intended to be evenly.   
  
"Alright, let's go then. Wormtail, you're up." James asserted.   
  
Peter melted into a rat, and darted towards the tree, which was currently whipping its boughs about at a frightful pace. The small rodent easily evaded the attacking limbs, and touched a knot on the tree. The tree froze, and a tunnel opened up beneath it.   
  
"So you're…all of you are…oh Holy Christ." Lily said, surprised. "You're all animagi? That's what Peter meant! Remus is never by himself…because you're always there. I wondered how you could be there for him through the change and not be werewolves yourselves. I'm rather impressed, did you use Stalworth's theory?"  
  
"Yeah, we just went by the book, didn't want to chance anything. You two, you threw the book out the window and did it yourselves. And THAT's impressive." James said, amiably.   
  
"That's just brilliant…" Kaleb whispered, as she followed the others into the tunnel.   
  
The walk seemed even longer than it actually was, due to the anxiety felt by Lily and Kaleb…was the transformation really as awful for Remus as Sirius had said?  
  
The door to the shack opened, and the cluster of students stepped inside. Remus was sitting in the corner of the room, pointedly staring at the wall, and NOT towards the moon.   
  
"Hey, Remus. It worked." Lily said, smiling at the boy.  
  
"Well, for your sake at least, I'm glad. Animagi transformations can go terribly wrong, you could have been caught in some…between form. It was entirely too dangerous and I really wish people would stop doing that for me!" Remus said, frantic, despite the calm his posture suggested.   
  
"Don't worry, we would've done it anyway, if only to prove we could. Besides, if I'm ever attacked again I'll just go all 'grr' on them." Lily said, attempting to relieve the boy of his guilt.   
  
Remus smiled wryly in response, and shuddered from the pain induced by La Lune.   
  
"Here, Remus, lay on your back." Kaleb said suddenly.   
  
Remus complied and the Marauders looked at Kaleb, puzzled.   
  
She knelt down beside the distraught boy and placed her fist under his back. She felt the vertebrae and left her fist there. "Is that better?"  
  
Remus let out a shaky breath. "Yeah, it doesn't hurt so badly. How did you…?" The question trailed off as he winced again, copper eyes tightly shut.   
  
Kaleb shrugged. "It's basic acupuncture. Well…without actually sticking needles in you. It won't help for very much longer, I'm afraid. Sorry, Rem." Her blue eyes were dark, she hated seeing her friends in any sort of pain. She tended to react harshly, to curse or hex anything that dared touch those that she cares about. This time, however, she couldn't.   
  
"Thanks, Kale." Remus whispered.   
  
Lily gave Kaleb a small smile. "That's my Kaleb, full of random and useful knowledge."   
  
'That's our Lily, full of random and useful knowledge.' Heather Evans had said once to her husband, only a few short weeks before their deaths.   
  
Lily's eyes went out of focus for a moment as she remembered. She felt the familiar clenching in her chest, and then shook it off. She absolutely refused to make a scene, especially not while Remus was in such pain.   
Time passed slowly, and all there was to do was sit and wait. But when the change did begin, it was abrupt. The bones in Remus' body visibly shifted and changed beneath his skin.   
  
He cried out, unable to silence the pain that seemed to tear his entire body apart. Which it did. Bones ripped through the flesh carelessly, and soon his form was coated in blood.   
  
The Marauders had already taken on their animal forms, as had Kaleb. But Lily sat there, watching Remus change, entranced and breaking from the sight of it. Kaleb's proud head nudged her as Remus', or Moony's, fur was finishing growing.   
  
Lily barely noticed, all she could see was Remus, all she could hear was his cries, becoming more animalistic and more feral by the second. Something inside her registered that Moony was just about finished changing, and that he was a werewolf, and she a human.   
  
She quickly slid into her lion form, and oddly emerald eyes remained fixated on the wolf before her.   
  
Although the wolf was familiar with the Stag, the rat, and the dog that stood before him…the two felines were strange. This, of course, equated a threat in the wolf's mind. Which of course, prompted an attack.  
  
Lily felt foolish for not expecting an attack from the canine, they were strangers in his lair, of course he would attack. Of course, she was always fiercely protective of Kaleb, and once the wolf dove at the black feline, Lily did not hesitate to leap into the fray.   
  
Tawny fur clashed with silver as the large feline flew through the air. Growls and snarls were hardly distinguishable from one animal to the next, but Lily refrained from using her claws, all she wanted to do was keep him from attacking…she meant no real harm.  
  
Moony, apparently, did not share in that philosophy, and the Lioness cried out as fangs sank into her back, on either side of her spine. The feline flipped and sent the wolf crashing into the opposite wall. Both were instantly on their feet again, snarling and panting and glaring at each other. Gold eyes met Emerald, and then the fury halted. The wolf seemed to realize that these felines were not intruders…but friends. New Packmates.   
  
Moony trotted forward, and oblivious to Lily's tensing, licked the feline on the top of it's head, a rather canine gesture of acceptance.  
  
The rest of the evening was rather uneventful, the animals played together, ran together, and waited together for the wounded feline to catch up.   
  
The following day would prove…interesting…for Lily.  
  
(A/N, Alright, this is still on hiatus, and I'm sorry that this is the soonest I've had time to update. Real life just keeps rearing its ugly head. Be prepared to wait a while for another chapter.) 


	15. Chapter Fifteen

(A/N Angelfire! Oh my god! I had completely forgotten about disclaimers! I just assumed that everyone would realize that I don't claim these characters and places as my own. Thank you for reminding me. By the way everyone! I don't own anything but the plot…or what is supposed to be a plot! And I'm really flattered that I have so many fans. I plan to be an author someday, so maybe you'll check me out if I ever get published? And polo13, I'm sorry if I misrepresented water polo, Kaleb was just supposed to say something offhand, like something she wouldn't see as a good time, but doesn't necessarily occur. I'm so sorry to all those who actually know something about water polo! I most certainly am not among you! Heh.)  
  
Long before Madame Pomfrey was to make her trip to the Shrieking Shack to attend to Remus after his transformation, the Marauders, Lily, and Kaleb had returned to the Castle. Kaleb, Sirius, James, and Peter had all returned to their human forms…but Lily was having some difficulty.  
  
Her wounds on her back from Moony's powerful jaws were deep, and caused the girl a great deal of pain. Due to this unhappy fact, Lily was unable to reach the necessary concentration to return to her human visage. Thus, the Marauders and Kaleb were faced with the prospect of sneaking a Lioness into the school.   
  
It was NOT as easy as one might think.  
  
First there was the issue of all those early-risers who strolled around the castle at simply ungodly hours. Then there were the Ravenclaws, who could never get to sleep for the constant stream of thoughts in their heads, and would walk around the castle in order to tire themselves out.   
  
Then there was Mr. Filch, the caretaker, who seemed to have been born as old-looking and displeasing to the eye as he was presently. There was also Mr. Norris. (Yes, Mr., Mrs. Norris' predecessor.) Mr. Norris was a foul-tempered cat with half a tail, one eye missing, and an exceptionally acute nose.  
  
Although this particular feline's nose was astute, and therefore extremely adept at detecting students, the lack of two functioning eyes robbed the beast of nearly all its depth perception. Thus, on the way to return to its master and lead him to students out of bed, it was prone to running into walls, statues, and people, which often left the cat unconscious, as it was given to random bursts of incredible speed.   
  
Despite all of his cat's shortcomings, Mr. Filch was devoted to the feline, and placed complete confidence in him. This confidence was not completely misplaced, for the cat seemed to know where the Marauders were at all times, and having a lioness with them would not aid their endeavor.   
  
So these four students and one lioness sat behind the statue of Vladimir the Voluminous, a very fat wizard known for his hand in inventing lemon drops. Who ever said they were a muggle candy? (A/N, I realize that JK Rowling has labeled them as such, but I say that they aren't)  
  
They were about to attempt a rather tricky charm on the girl which would make her presence invoke a sort of short term memory loss, so no one would remember they saw her…but there were a couple of glitches. One, being that Lily was the only one of them advanced enough in Charms to actually CAST the spell, and the other being that they themselves would not be impervious to its effects.   
  
Then Sirius had a rather wonderful stroke of genius. "Hey! How about we transfigure her into a marble, and simply carry her upstairs!"  
  
"I don't know…transfiguring a person in their animagus form? I'm not sure we should risk Lily to your rather lackadaisical study habits." Kaleb said, biting her lip to keep from laughing at the predicament.   
  
James chose that moment to blissfully remember what he had read on the subject. "It shouldn't be too difficult…" he insisted. "All you have to do is conjugate the infinitive differently…watch…"   
  
Before Kaleb could protest the use of her best friend as a guinea-pig…or lioness…James had uttered an unfamiliar phrase in latin, and Lily was no more. That isn't to say that she died or anything, for she was quiet existent. She was in a spiffy marble form. A furry marble, but a marble nonetheless.   
  
Sirius cocked his head to the side and looked down at the marble. "Should it be furry?"  
  
James glared at Sirius's response. "It's FINE."  
  
"Well, come on, let's go! As unquestioning as Madam Pomfrey is, I don't think that we could bring Lily in lioness form into the infirmary and expect not to get a reaction." Kaleb said, and picked up the Lily-marble. "Let's go, love." She said and dropped the marble into her pocket.   
  
The trek up the stairs and into the Marauders' dorm room is rather uneventful, and leads Kaleb to believe that they really could have sneaked a lioness up there. She set the Lily-marble in the middle of James' bed and looked at him expectantly. "Ok, Potter. Change her back, now."   
  
James smiled, nodded, and raised his wand. His mouth opened, but suspiciously no sound came out. "Uh…"   
  
Kaleb's eyes darkened from blue to nearly black. "You don't know how to change her back?!" The low tone and intensity of her voice sent shivers down James, Sirius, and Peter's backs.   
  
"Just give me a minute!" James said, defensively. "It's just slipped my mind, that's all."  
  
A few seconds passed, and James' eyes lit up. "Oh! I remember it!" He said excitedly.   
  
This was a very, very good thing for James. As Kaleb was about half a second from changing forms and ripping his throat out.   
  
He raised his wand and uttered a phrase that sounded more Greek than Latin, and Lily was once again in lioness form, sprawled across James' bed, still bleeding from the wounds on her back.   
  
"Good, now we can finally get her back to human form, right?" Peter said, relieved.   
  
"In theory…" Sirius said, slowly.   
  
"In theory?" Peter squeaked.   
  
"Theory, nothing!" Kaleb said, rolling her eyes. "It's simple." She pointed her wand at Lily and uttered a numbing spell. Within minutes Lily had shifted back to her human form, and the spell wore off.   
  
"Why didn't we do that outside?" James asked, arching a brow.   
  
"I had forgotten about it." Kaleb said, flippantly.   
  
During this short conversation Lily's breathing became increasingly heavy, her eyes were shut tightly, and her hands clenched into fists so tightly that she was drawing blood from her palms. She growled low under her breath, but made no noise other than that.   
  
Instantly Kaleb was by Lily's side. She ran her hand lightly over the wound, checking how deep it was. Lily's natural reaction was, of course, to cry out. "Jesus!" She hissed.   
  
"He bit me! The sod bit me!" Lily said, wriggling out of the way of Kaleb's fingers, which were trying to ascertain the damage. "And I can't even be mad because I should have known that he would!"   
  
"God…" Kaleb said, sitting back, her face pale.   
  
"What is it?" James asked, hurrying to check the wound for himself. "Christ…that's really deep, Lils."  
  
"I could have told you that! Bloody wankers, the lot of you!" Lily grumbled. Tears were constantly welling up in her eyes from the intense pain. "I'll just take care of it myself." She said, defiantly, and began to rise to her feet.   
  
She attempted to take a step forward, and the shifting muscles in her back caused her legs to give way, and she caught herself by grabbing on to Sirius' shoulder. A stream of curses that would make a sailor blush escaped from the redhead's mouth.   
  
"Lily! I didn't know you knew those words!" Sirius said, feigning shock.   
  
"Kaleb, what was that spell you used earlier?" James asked, looking for a way to dull the pain.  
  
"Sorry, that one only works on animals." Kaleb said, biting her lip.  
  
Blood was seeping from the wound, down the back of her pants and was coating her shirt.   
  
"Should there be that much blood?" Peter squeaked.   
  
"Just get me to the bloody infirmary, ok?" Lily said, gritting her teeth. Pain she could handle, but don't expect her to be pleasant while doing it. 


	16. Chapter Sixteen

The trip down to the infirmary was infinitely less pleasant than the trip to the tower. As it happens, lionesses who have been transfigured into furry marbles cannot emote. They have no way of communicating pain. Lily, however, was no longer in spiffy furry marble form. She was very much a human, and very much in pain. She rarely cried out, but just watching the girl try valiantly to make it on her own to the infirmary, with gashes that went deep into her back, was painful.   
  
"Miss Evans! Mr. Potter, Black, Pettigrew! And Miss Brandon!" Madame Pomfrey said, falling back on her old habit of announcing to herself who was in the room, it served to help her remember names. "What is the matter?"  
  
Lily turned and lifted her blood-soaked shirt enough to reveal the wounds.   
  
"Lie down on the bed there, dear. Stomach down." Pomfrey said, immediately barking orders. "Black! Go to the store room and get me the Impendus Potion! It's the purple one with the green stopper. Brandon! Go to the Med-Lab in the back and fetch the three tomes of "Wands and Wounds" from the shelf! Pettigrew, for heavens' sakes! Go back to the dorm and lie down, I know as well as you do that you cannot handle the sight of blood!"  
  
As the four students complied, James remained standing, uneasy, staring at Lily's back. "And what about me, Madame Pomfrey?"  
  
"Potter, sit there and hold her hand, this is not going to be pleasant for her." Poppy said grimly.   
  
James slid into the chair next to the bed that Lily was laying upon. His hand found hers quickly and she turned her head to face him. "God, I'm pathetic. Can't even handle a scratch, can I?" She said, laughing weakly.  
  
"That's a site more than a scratch, Tiger Lily. And you aren't pathetic in the least, if I were you I'd be bawling my eyes out. You're very strong…" He whispered, as Sirius returned with the purple potion.   
  
"Here, Madame Pomfrey." He said, and hurriedly handed her the potion.   
  
Pomfrey nodded and set about inspecting the wound. Lily jumped every time she touched it, and squeezed his hand tightly. Pomfrey dabbed the potion onto the wound, and Lily literally hissed from the pain. James clung to her hand, feeling stupid and useless as she jumped.   
  
He made calming, soothing noises absently, and watched as Kaleb returned with the large books. She sat the tomes down on the table, and bit her lip so hard that she drew blood.   
  
Pomfrey frowned as she worked, one hand applying the potion skillfully, the other flipping through the three volumes left on the table, searching for a specific spell, that apparently only she would have the knowledge of medicine to recognize.   
  
The doors to the infirmary opened loudly, and in walked Minerva McGonagall, floating a young Mr. Lupin behind her. "Poppy, I've brought him." She said, ignoring the presence of the students.   
  
"Place him there, Minerva, Miss Evans has a bit of a scratch." Pomfrey said, absently, gesturing to the bed beside Lily's. McGonagall quickly complied, and then promptly left the room, leaving no greeting nor word to the occupants of the room.   
  
Remus lay completely still on the bed, his eyes transfixed on Lily's back, where blood was currently gushing from a rather large wound. 'Did I do that? What happened to her?' Remus thought frantically, searching his mind for the events of the previous night.   
  
Sirius was instantly by Remus' side, checking his friend for broken bones and abrasions. "I'm fine, Siri." Remus said impatiently, batting his friend's hands away. "Is she alright, Madame?" He asked, his voice small.   
  
"Time will tell, Mr. Lupin. Time will tell." Poppy was not one to commit herself to a false promise, nor to diagnose without sufficient data, and therefore would not predict an outcome.   
  
Pomfrey spread the edges of the wound apart, causing Lily to cry out, loudly. "Ah! Just kill me and get it over with!" Lily hissed, tears welled in her eyes nearly to the point of overflowing.   
  
James knelt beside the bed, and brought Lily's hand to his lips, gently brushing his lips across the smooth skin. "It'll be ok, Tiger Lily…I promise." James said, whispering sincerely to the girl.  
  
Although Pomfrey was not about to back up his statement, she knew he was being sincere, and not giving empty promises. "Aha!" She said, obviously pleased with herself, as she paused on a certain entry in the large volume. Poppy touched her wand to Lily's wound, causing her to cry out when the incantation was made. The blood immediately stopped flowing from the wound, and Pomfrey cleared it away gently. Casting another spell, she began to sew up the damage, and ended with a clean white bandage around her middle.   
  
Lily shuddered as the bandages scraped against the sensitive and abused flesh, fresh waves of pain coursing through her. "God--Jamie!" She said sharply, the tears finally flowing down her cheeks. She tightened her grasp on his hand, to the point that if she held him any tighter she would break bones.   
  
Pomfrey raised her wand and summoned a flask. "Now, Miss Evans, I want you to take a swallow of this every hour, and come back here when it is empty. It will not rid you of all of the pain, I'm afraid, as the bite appears to have been made by a magical creature. You are free to leave. Mr. Black, how is Mr. Lupin?"   
  
Sirius did not tear his eyes from his tawny friend, but responded, "He's fine…as well as can be expected anyway."   
  
"Then you all are free to leave. Get some rest, eat some chocolate. And I do not want to see the lot of you for a long while!" She said, sternly although her eyes glinted with motherly affection.   
  
Lily swallowed a mouthful of the clear liquid in the flask given to her and shuddered at the sour taste. "Thank you, Madame." She said as she rose to her feet, leaning on Kaleb for support as the group exited the infirmary.   
  
Once the door had been securely shut, and the Marauders-plus were roughly halfway down that particular corridor, with no one else in sight, Remus turned to face Lily. He stopped her by placing hands on her shoulders, then retracting them suddenly, as if afraid to hurt her. "What happened?" He asked, his voice intense.   
  
Sirius placed a hand on his tawny-headed friend's shoulder. "Rem…When Lily and Kaleb were in their animal forms…you didn't know them. Moony didn't know them. And you jumped at Kaleb, Lily, of course, threw herself in the way and…well a great deal of fighting ensued. You ended up biting Lily pretty deeply in the back before you realized they were friends." Sirius said, voice low and worried.   
  
Remus stood, silent. He blinked, several times, as if to clear his head of the images rushing into it. He opened his mouth three times in succession, and no sound came from it. His mind, apparently, was incapable of formulating a response to the revelation, and in true fight or flight response, he ran. The sounds of his feet slapping the stone floors grew smaller, and the echoes began to dim.   
  
"I--I have to talk to him." Lily said turning sharply to follow the werewolf. The pain in her back, although it began to ebb due to the potion, was intense. "I think you guys are bad luck, I've been hurt twice since I've started speaking to you!" She laughed.   
  
James' eyes darkened, and guilt washed over him again and again. It grew extremely intense, to where tears pricked at his eyes. His stomach twisted in knots, and he felt the insane urge to hold Lily until Hogwarts fell down around them. To protect her from anyone that would dare try and hurt her. 


	17. Chapter Seventeen

(Whew, I'm on chapter 17! This is getting to be a long story!)  
  
Lily stumbled down the hallway after Remus, having shooed the rest of the group back to the tower. The sounds of her footsteps rang clearly through the hall, and she could hear the faint sound of another set of footsteps some ways in front of her.   
  
"Remus! Slow your bloody arse down! I'm at a bit of a disadvantage, speed-wise!" She called, the faintest trace of laughter in her tone. After a minute or two, Lily stopped. There was no corresponding set of footsteps anymore. Slowly, she moved a few more paces, and reached out to touch the handle of a door.   
  
She turned the doorknob and stepped into what appeared to be meant as a teacher's lounge, but had obviously been in disuse. "Remus?" She called softly, hesitant to break the tomb-like silence of the room.   
  
Lily ventured further into the room, and found Remus curled in upon himself in a dusty armchair next to the only window in the room. Gingerly, Lily sat in the armchair across from him, her emerald eyes exhibiting her confusion as to what to say. "Remus…it's all right…" She said slowly, focusing on the elfin face in front of her.   
  
"No!" Remus snapped. "It isn't! I could have killed you! Would have killed you…" Remus' voice shook, and wavered into silence.  
  
Lily reached forward and took Remus' hand into her own. "But you didn't. I'm still here, I'm not going to die."   
  
"I wish everyone would stop risking their lives to help me! I've been a werewolf since I was four! That's been over a decade! Over a decade of full moons and pain and scratching and biting without everyone coming to 'rescue' me. I'm not made of glass, I can make it through the full moon alone. Every day since the first time James, Peter, and Sirius transformed I've been haunted with the dread that I'll hurt them! That I'll tear into their soft flesh and maul them until they can no longer scream." Remus turned a suddenly blazing amber gaze to her, and growled. "Last night I almost did."  
  
Lily was suddenly angry. SHE had been the one who was hurt, not Remus. She had had about enough of his tough act. "Listen, Lupin. I knew before I went in there what the risks were. I knew that, if you wanted to, you could kill me mid-heartbeat. We know that you can make it on your own. We hate it that you have to. And now you don't have to. So don't give me all this shite about how no one understands the risks. We do. And we still come. And we will always come."  
  
Remus looked slightly taken aback at her outburst. "But should you?" He asked quietly.   
  
"Doesn't matter. Doesn't make a bit of difference. We will always be there. Always. And I don't blame you for what happened to me. Not one single bit. It wasn't your fault. I want you to scream, cry, do the fragging hokey-pokey or whatever it is that you need to do to get passed this, and get passed it. It isn't your back that's bleeding, it's mine. And as long as it is my back, we're fine." Lily said vehemently.   
  
Remus stared at the floor in front of him, and neither he nor Lily made a sound. Slowly, he looked out of the corner of his eye at Lily. The faintest ghost of a smile graced his face and he said, "The hokey pokey, Tiger Lily?" And the pair laughed.   
  
Back in Gryffindor Tower, the Marauders and Kaleb were sitting in a circle on James' bed, waiting. The silence was becoming deafening, and Peter shifted uncomfortably.   
  
"I hope Remus is ok." Kaleb said, at last.   
  
James looked up, startled. "You hope Remus is ok? What about Lily! You're her best friend! And Remus wasn't the one who got a bite taken out of him!" James' voice had not gone up in volume, but had steadily increased in intensity.   
  
"Lily knew the risks when she went in there. She may not have known that it would happen that way, but she knew it could. Besides, she's fine. She'll be sore for a while, and she'll have a cool scar to show off at parties. Remus is the one that is going to be emotionally scarred after this. Besides, are you telling me you blame Remus for what happened?" Kaleb asked, arching a brow. Her gaze was cold and dangerous, and extremely threatening.  
  
"Of course I don't. Not really. I just…she was laying there and there was so much blood and she was in so much pain…I…it was horrible." James said, gesturing uselessly in an attempt to convey his meaning.   
  
Kaleb stared at him for a while, an odd look on her face.   
  
"What?" James asked after a few minutes, unnerved.   
  
"Oh…nothing." Kaleb said absently, and fingered the pattern on the quilt.   
  
Just then Lily and Remus burst into the dorm. They were nearly breathless from laughter, and both of them were flushed.  
  
"Hey, what's with all the gloom and doom faces?" Lily asked, giggling.   
  
"I know what'll cheer everyone up!" Remus said triumphantly.   
  
"What?" Lily asked, already expecting a joke.  
  
"We could do the HOKEY POKEY!" That started another bout of side-grasping laughter, during which Peter, James, Sirius, and Kaleb simply stared.   
  
"Are you two drunk?" Sirius asked, after the pair flopped onto the bed that the rest of the group was on as well.   
  
"Oh! That would have been a good idea!" Lily said, poking Remus in his side. "Pity we didn't think of it."  
  
Remus, returned the poke and then addressed his friends. "Nah, we went down to the kitchens and loaded up on sugar. Yup, this is me and Lils, ala Sugar High."  
  
Kaleb groaned. "When you crash, Lils, you had better be in your bed. I am not carrying you to our dorm."   
  
The next few weeks flew by with business as usual, and the group of friends grew exceedingly closer. We look back in on them on a Friday evening, just before they go into the Great Hall for supper. Lily had taken to predicting what the meal would be before they entered the hall, and more often than not, she was right.   
  
"I'd say…roast beef with carrots and potatoes…and…cherry tart for dessert." Lily announced, holding a hand over her eyes dramatically.   
  
The group entered the hall and sat together at the end of the Gryffindor table. The groupies that flocked around the Marauders hadn't given up on them, however, and sat as close to the objects of affection as they could.   
  
When the food appeared on the table, Lily laughed triumphantly. "Ha! I told you! Am I good, or am I good?" Her grin was contagious, and soon the entire group was concurring. Remus however, bit his lip, and worried about things that had never before occurred to him.   
  
Lily and Kaleb were sitting in the Gryffindor Common room on Saturday morning, waiting for the Marauders to wake up and come downstairs.   
  
Kaleb tossed a sofa-cushion at her scarlet-haired friend. "Just do it, already! Since when are you nervous about this stuff?" She arched a perfectly formed brow, and awaited her friend's response.   
  
"I'm not, I'm not. I just…I don't want to ask him, and then have it make everything awkward. If it was just me and someone I hardly know, it would be no big deal. Even with him being a close friend, I could go back to normal, but I don't think he would. Things would get strained and weird and I don't want that to happen." Lily explained rapidly, as she clutched the cushion to her chest.   
  
"Lily, you're acting like such a girl." Kaleb said, rolling her sapphire eyes.   
  
(A/N Did that seem too short? Well, it would have been up sooner, but ff.net was being a butt-monkey, so I couldn't upload it. The next chapter should be up fairly soon) 


	18. Chapter Eighteen

(A/N Chapter Eighteen! I hope it doesn't seem like I've suddenly dropped Lily and James into this romance thing, it'll all make sense by the end. Hopefully.)  
  
The Marauders came down the stairs to find the sofa cushions scattered all over the common room, and Lily and Kaleb sitting silently, staring at each other.  
  
"Oh!" Sirius said, excitedly. "I've got winner!"   
  
Lily turned and looked at him, cocking a brow. "Eh?"  
  
"I'll play winner…of your staring contest, silly!"  
  
Kaleb smiled lazily. "We weren't having a staring contest. We were sitting here, looking at each other, and not…blinking. Ok, so it may have looked like a staring contest. But it wasn't."   
  
"And with that cleared up, I suggest we get our collective arse to the Great Hall. You lot took forever, and I am famished." Lily said, springing to her feet. She helped Kaleb to hers, and the group set off for breakfast.   
  
About halfway to the Great Hall, Lily caught James' arm. "Can I talk to you for a minute?" Lily asked, and James nodded. The pair slowed their pace so that the others were far enough away not to overhear.   
  
"Since everyone is going to Hogsmeade today, I was wondering if you…if you'd like…" Lily trailed off, and color rose in her cheeks.   
  
"Wait, are you…are you blushing?" James asked, incredulously. "Has anyone got a camera? Lily Helena Evans is blushing!"   
  
Lily punched him in the arm, not enough to hurt, but enough to make him shut up. "Jesus, James! Shut up! You don't make things easy, that's for sure. Here I am, trying to ask you out on a date, and all you can talk about is that I'm blushing!" Lily said, a little too loudly.   
  
The rest of the Marauders and Kaleb stopped suddenly, and turned around.   
  
It was James' turn to blush.   
  
"So James? Are you going to go out with the lass?" Sirius asked, cocking an eyebrow. He loved watching his friend squirm.   
  
"Oh we all know he is. He's fancied the girl from day one." Remus said, as he waved his hand dismissively.   
  
"Hang on a second, don't I get any say in this?" James said, agitated.   
  
"If you don't want to, that's fine…" Lily said, as she blushed again. She soon found the floor to be exceedingly interesting, as it was no where near James' eyes.   
  
"No, no, no. I didn't say that!" James interjected, and caught Lily's arm. Lily shot him a look, and her green eyes were guarded. James smiled roguishly at the girl. "Miss Evans, I would be delighted to accompany you on a date."   
  
Lily allowed a shy smile to grace her features.   
  
"Jamie, where are we going? When I asked you out I thought we'd grab a butterbeer or something like that!" Lily said, as she balanced precariously on stones jutting out from the lake.   
  
James merely smiled that enigmatic smile of his and continued onwards. The pair continued over the stepping stones, and into a clearing near the edge of the forbidden forest. It was as if someone had stashed a private meadow in the midst of the sprawling trees. Small lights lit the falling evening. 'Faerie lights.' Lily thought absently.   
  
"What is this?" Lily asked, finding the place somewhat familiar.   
  
"We ran through here last moon, I don't know if you remember or not. You were a bit…distracted." James said delicately.   
  
Lily made a sound that, had it been any louder, could have been considered a snort. "Understatement, Potter."   
  
James turned and cocked his head to the side a bit. "Are we back to Potter, then?"   
  
Lily smiled sheepishly, and shook her head. "If we were would I be here?"   
  
James smiled and lifted the woven basket that he held in his right hand. "Shall we?"   
  
The pair took a seat on a blanket that James conjured. "And just what do you have in that magic basket of yours?" Lily asked, peering at it.   
  
James lifted the lid and took a quick glance. "I think I have everything I need to sweep you off your feet." He said, mock-seriously.   
  
"One would think," Lily mused. "That since I asked you out, that I should be doing the sweeping. But I'll let it go, this time." She smiled wickedly and stole a glance out of the corner of her eye.   
  
Producing a pair of champagne flutes, and a bottle of sparkling cider, he replied. "How very sporting of you."   
  
James attacked the cider with a corkscrew, causing Lily to chuckle. "Do you know what you're doing with that?" She asked.   
  
He merely glared, and continued to assault the cork. Lily laughed and quickly ducked as the aforementioned cork shot off into the evening air. James flushed slightly and shrugged. "Hey, it's open, isn't it?"  
  
He poured the cider and Lily had to agree. "That it is."  
  
"I feel like such an idiot. I mean, after all the time we've spent together lately, I'm still nervous right now." Lily's smile was hesitant, and James could see from her posture that she wasn't making an offhand remark.   
  
"I wouldn't think you would be. From what I've heard, first dates should be a breeze for you." James said, sipping at his cider.   
  
Lily rolled her eyes and replied sarcastically. "Oh yes, because I've been on so many of them."   
  
"Well yeah, haven't you?"   
  
"No. I do not date nearly as much as people seem to think that I do. I've been on maybe…three dates? Yes, that sounds about right." Lily mused, staring up at the sky.   
  
"I find that hard to believe." James said, as he scooted a little closer to Lily.   
  
Lily, of course, did not pick up on the implied compliment. "Well, believe it Potter, it's true. Even if people did find me attractive, they wouldn't dare approach me. I'm scary." At this point Lily snapped her teeth playfully, before continuing. "Besides, Harris would make sure that I was the last person they ever dated, and not in the happy white picket fence way. But now that you have gone on a date with me, it may become fashionable. Then, of course, I'll have to shack up with Kaleb and denounce the whole thing--"   
  
James suddenly put his hand over her mouth. She squeaked in indignation, and motioned for an explanation. "You were babbling, Lils."  
  
"Was I?" She asked, absently. She was currently staring into the forest.   
  
"What's wrong?" James was instantly alert, scanning the treeline.   
  
"I have the strangest feeling that someone is watching us…" Lily clambered to her feet, and drew her wand. 'What if it's those girls who attacked me?' Lily thought, frantically.   
  
James joined her with his wand at the ready, as the leaves in a large oak tree began to shake.   
  
A loud thud was heard as something struck the ground, and an invisibility cloak fell away from the prone form of Sirius Black. Kaleb slid from the tree and landed gracefully on her feet next to him.   
  
"Black! Kaleb! What the hell is going on here?!" Lily asked, rather relieved that the three cloaked figures hadn't been responsible for the noise  
  
  
  
"Umm…'Lo mates!" Sirius ventured cheerily, as he rose to his feet.   
  
Kaleb shook her head at him. "Trying to climb a tree in dog-form, because you thought it would be quieter, was not among your most brilliant ideas."   
  
Lily glared at Kaleb, silently demanding an explanation.   
  
Kaleb gulped as she was caught in Lily's gaze. "Well you see, the thing is…I was rather bored, because you weren't there. I was also a bit curious about how things were coming along and…and Sirius here suggested that we come check up on you."  
  
"Spy on us you mean." Lily drawled.  
  
"Tomato, tomahto, really." Sirius said, brushing off his robes. "The bottom line is, we came, you saw, now we'll run along home."   
  
James and Lily watched as Kaleb and Sirius hurried back to the castle. Once they were out of sight, the remaining pair burst into laughter.   
  
"You'd think that the world would end if this didn't work out." Lily laughed, gesturing between the two of them.   
  
James stepped a little closer to her. "Who knows? It just might."   
  
Lily's laughter was cut short, and she leaned forward a little bit. "I'd hate to tempt fate…" She murmured.   
  
Their lips met in the first kiss of many. The clearing, the night, the castle, the lake, everything melted away as they held each other. Fireworks were exploding behind Lily's closed eyes, and she began to wonder how she had ever lived without this…this sense of home.   
  
Time went steadily onwards, and James and Lily saw each other frequently, in a romantic sense. The subsequent dates had gone much better than the first, though Lily admitted that she couldn't find fault with it.   
  
(So that was chapter 18…the First Date chapter. How did I do with the romantic bit? I'll be the first to admit that it isn't my forte. The upcoming chapters should be pretty interesting ^_^) 


	19. Chapter Nineteen

(Fwee! Chapter 19! I'm getting really excited about the story! Oh, and don't get too attached to the idea of Kaleb and Sirius as a couple. It…um…isn't going to work out that way.)  
  
The Marauders, for surely Lily and Kaleb can be labeled as such by now, sat in the common room, on two sofas and an armchair. Lily was curled up on one of the sofas, and was also rather tucked against James' side, who had an arm draped around her lazily. Sirius, Remus, and Kaleb sat, in that order, on another of the sofas, with Kaleb having her legs sprawled out over those of Remus and Sirius. Peter was currently sitting in a chair, a potions text open on his lap.   
  
"You looking forward to tomorrow, Lils?" Kaleb asked, smiling at the redhead.   
  
"What? What's tomorrow?" James asked, arching a brow.   
  
"My fifteenth birthday." Lily said, as she drew patterns into the fabric covering the sofa.   
  
"What! You never told me that tomorrow is your birthday! Now I have to get to Hogsmeade somehow tonight for your gift." James said, plotting just how to sneak from the tower.   
  
Remus shrugged. "You can come with Siri and me, we still have to get her presents too. Peter apparently remembered it from last year, he already bought one."  
  
Peter looked up from his potions work absently. "Oh? Yes, that was the day they transfigured me into a human toad. That's the only reason I remember."   
  
"Sorry, Peter." Lily said, sheepishly. "If it makes you feel any better that took ages to figure out how to do."  
  
Peter snorted. "Oh yes, much better."   
  
"Anyway, I don't want any of you to worry about presents for me. Your presence is all I ask." Lily said, leaning her head back against James' arm.   
  
The following evening, Lily was greeted with streamers and confetti as she entered the fifth year boys dorm. Her hands instantly went up to brush the confetti out of her hair, only to see that the other four people in the room had it all through theirs, and didn't seem to care.  
  
"Happy Birthday Lily, my love!" Kaleb said, almost bouncing with excitement.   
  
"What is all this?" She laughed. There were lilies everywhere they covered the floor, the beds, they even hung in bouquets in mid-air.   
  
"It's your birthday party! And if you don't get good and smashed, I'm going to be mortally offended." Sirius said, thrusting a bottle of butterbeer into her hands.   
  
"Far be it from me to ruin the party." Lily said, with a roguish smile. She tossed back some of the butterbeer, to the delight of Sirius.   
  
"Now for the most important part!" James said, after they were all sprawled across Sirius' bed and getting a little tipsy. With an overdramatic flourish, a pile of gifts appeared in the middle of the bed.   
  
Lily smacked Peter, who happened to be closest. "I told you lot that I didn't want any presents! What, do I need to tattoo it to your foreheads?" She laughed.   
  
"Maybe next year we'll get tattoos, Lils, open mine first!" Remus said, who wasn't the least bit drunk, but enjoyed the atmosphere. He thrust a rounded package into her arms.   
  
The red and gold paper came off rather unceremoniously, leaving Lily holding a beautifully engraved silver bowl. "Oh…Remus…" She gasped. "It's a Pensieve! It's so beautiful…thank you!"   
  
"Now you won't have to use a bedpan." Remus said impishly, as she looped an arm around his neck and kissed his cheek.   
  
"At least not for that." Sirius reasoned. "Mine next!" A hastily wrapped package was dumped in her arms, and Lily opened it, almost excruciatingly slowly.  
  
"Oh get on with it!" Kaleb tossed a pillow at her friend, who stuck out her tongue.   
  
Lily ran her hand over the embossed cover of a large tome. "'Chained to the Moon' by Amadeus Astrid." She read.  
  
"I figured since you're, you know, the studious type, that you might like it. It's really interesting, plus you can find all sorts of tidbits in there to use against Moony!" He laughed, and was suddenly under the attack of a werewolf with a pillow.   
  
During all of this Lily had opened the book and began reading, all the while biting her lower lip, in the pensive way she had when she read. A quick 'accio' brought the volume from Lily's hands.  
  
"No, Lils. You can't read it tonight." James said. "It won't be any fun if we're getting smashed and you're reading!"   
  
"Oh all right. Thank you Sirius, it's a lovely gift." She said, and kissed Sirius on the right cheek.   
  
Peter flushed slightly as he handed his carefully wrapped gift to the fiery girl. Lily unwrapped the gift, and laid the paper aside carefully before squealing in delight. "1001 All New Gags, Jokes, and Pranks! I've had my eye on this for weeks! Thanks, Peter." She said, and despite how embarrassed he seemed by it, she gave him the standard kiss on the cheek as well.   
  
"Why are you people giving her books? Do you not want her attention?" Kaleb asked, exasperated, 'accio'ing the book from Lily's hands. Lily pouted, and Kaleb thought that maybe she'd forgive her once she received her present.   
  
"Mine next, my love. I promise it isn't anything you'll be reading." Kaleb laughed, and thrust her present into the redhead's lap. The paper was off unceremoniously, and a length of silvery cloth pooled in her lap.   
  
"Oh, Kaleb. An invisibility cloak? These are really rare…" Lily ran her hand over the material in awe.   
  
"I figured if we wanted to sneak out without these gits we wouldn't have to steal hornhead's cloak." Kaleb said smiling. "Now, do I get a kiss too?" She teased.   
  
Never one to back down, Lily leaned over and pressed a kiss to Kaleb's cheek, at the corner of her mouth. Sirius wolf-whistled, and Remus told him to shut up.   
  
"Now for mine." James said simply, and produced a small square box. Lily looked at him quizzically, and took the ribbon off of the velveteen box. The lid snapped back, and Lily gasped.   
  
"It's a Claddagh ring. I…I hope you'll wear it this way…" James said, placing the elegant gold ring on her left ring finger, the crown pointing outwards.   
  
(A/N If you aren't familiar with Claddagh rings, check out this website: http://www.claddaghrings.com/history.htm)   
  
Lily stared at the ring on her hand, holding back the tears that threatened to spill. Her mother had worn a claddagh ring that her father had given to her when they became engaged. When Lily was small her mother told her about claddagh rings, and all they mean.   
  
James smiled nervously. "What, no kiss? When a bloke's friends are getting luckier with his girlfriend than he is, there is something wrong." He laughed. James immediately found Lily in his arms, her lips pressed tightly to his. She was trying to convey through that one kiss that she knew all that the claddagh meant, and that she…that she loved him.   
  
By the time Lily sat back, James was gasping for breath.  
  
Remus nudged Kaleb, and said mildly, "Now I'm feeling a bit slighted."  
  
"Me too." Kaleb nodded.   
  
Sirius laughed and draped his arm around Remus' waist. "Poor little wolf-boy."   
  
Later, in the true spirit of getting thoroughly smashed, the Marauders were sitting around doing shots. Lily and Remus had had twice as much as the other three, and weren't even nearing a tipsy stage.   
  
"There you go, being all spoil-sport like! Can't even get properly smashed." Sirius scolded, having firmly planted his feet in the land of Tipsiness.   
  
"All right, you three. Let's go…prank the Slytherins! Then we can…we can kip out in the Astronomy Tower and plot pranks." Kaleb said, feeling generous enough to allow Lily and James some alone time.   
  
No one in the dorm was actually drunk, per se, they were just…relaxed. More relaxed than they had been pre-alcohol. Due to this rather relaxed state, the four people in question thought it was a great idea, and clambered out of the dorm to prank the unsuspecting Slytherin House.   
  
Lily laughed and watched them go, and then turned back so she was facing James. A quick glance at the clock told her it was 9:47.   
  
"I'm officially fifteen as of this minute." She said, smiling. She approached James and he wrapped his arms around her waist.   
  
"Happy Birthday, love." James whispered, and he kissed her. Because Lily's eyes were closed neither of them noticed the change they underwent. A gold ring now outlined her pupils, and the outer edges of her irises.   
  
Lily inhaled deeply, and then kissed James again. She was more insistent this time, and she could feel a growl rising low in her throat. 'Mine.' The thought came unbidden to her mind, and she whispered the word into James' mouth.   
  
She nudged him backwards, guiding him towards the bed she knew belonged to him. Lily felt his legs hit the side of the bed, and she pushed him backwards. "Mine…always…" She whispered.   
  
(A/N Yeah, they shagged. And yeah, they're underage. I don't condone that sort of activity when minors are concerned, but for the story that's how it had to be.) 


	20. Chapter Twenty

(A/N Woo! Chapter 20! And to the reviewer that said the end of 19 sucked [who didn't leave their name, btw] there is a reason that she became a trifle less spunky. I'm sure you've all cottoned on by now about Lils. Her sort of docile attitude is explained later. And just because she wasn't walking around threatening to beat the shit out of someone doesn't mean she lost her spunk. Characters grow, and she was spending an evening with the man that she loves, would you be a smart-ass about it? Even if you would, my Lily wouldn't. If you think this fic has gone sour, stop reading it. Also, you didn't tell me what you thought was so awful about chapter 19. You know what that makes your review, right? A flame. Not constructive criticism, but a flame.  
  
To shortnsassy- No worries, that is not the conception of Harry ^_~. I didn't mean to make it sound like that, I'm referring to a different part of the story line  
  
To Lunamoon7- Nope, not because she's an animagus…that particular meaning will be revealed in up-coming chapters, though.)  
  
Lily awoke to the sound of 'My Lover? No…more than that.' James' breathing, and pressed a gentle kiss to his collarbone. As she came further into consciousness, she froze. 'Oh god. I slept with James. I slept with James. I slept with James.' Her thoughts looped endlessly as she slipped silently from the bed, dressed, and darted from the dorm.   
  
She made in into her dorm, and her bed, before collapsing. She waved her wand and cast a silencing charm, to ensure that she wouldn't have people barging in on her. She curled around the stuffed unicorn that Kaleb was so fond of teasing her for, and tried to place why she should feel guilty. Instead of guilt, Lily felt a profound sense of wholeness…like she was finally complete.   
  
Back in the boys' dorm James awoke to an empty bed. Sleep-dumb, he searched the bed for Lily, even down at the waaaaaay end of the bed, where the shadows obscured everything. She wasn't there. His heart constricted painfully. 'Oh, god. No…not again…not this time.' This scene was all too familiar for James. At the end of fourth year, James had begun seeing a sixth year girl named Lauren. She had been everything to him, and he fancied himself in love.   
  
At their three month anniversary, James presented this girl with a claddagh ring, similar to the one he had given Lily. That night the pair had slept together. The next morning James found the ring on the nightstand, and Lauren was nowhere to be found.   
  
Frantically, he checked the nightstand for a ring. 'Well…it isn't there…that might be a good thing.' He reasoned.   
  
Just then the door to the dorm opened, and Peter, Remus, and Sirius entered the room. Remus looked at James quizzically. "You just getting up, mate?"   
  
Sirius frowned, and approached James' bed. He checked beside it, and sure enough, a set of clothes were puddled unceremoniously on the floor. James was extremely fastidious, his clothes were always folded and put away before bed. He gave the air a delicate sniff, just to be certain, and his eyes widened.   
  
"You and Lily shagged!" He accused.   
  
James flopped back on the pillows, and stared dreamily at the canopy above him. "That isn't any concern of yours, Black." James said.   
  
"But you did! Hey, she isn't here now. What'd you do, scare her off, Prongsie?" Sirius said, and cuffed his friend on the top of his head.   
  
James shut his eyes tightly, and didn't respond. Sirius, fortunately, got the idea, and he sobered immediately. "Aw, man. I'm sorry, mate." He really seemed sincere.   
  
Back in the girls' dorm, Kaleb had just flopped on Lily's bed. "So, did you have fun after we left?" She asked, poking the redhead goodnaturedly.   
  
"You could say that…" Lily drawled, arching an eyebrow. "I…um…James and I…we…well…" At this point Lily buried her face in her pillow. "I slept with Jamie."   
  
Kaleb must have jumped about a foot in the air. "You did what?! Are you…are you regretting it?" She asked gently, her hand absently stroking Lily's ankle.   
  
Lily looked up from her pillow, and she tried (and failed) to conceal her beaming grin. "No! Not in the least! That's what is so weird…I feel so…happy. Like there was a part of me that had been missing, and it's back again. Does that make sense?" She asked, cuddling the pillow.   
  
"I wouldn't know. Never been in love, m'self. But why are you in here, then? Shouldn't you be over with Jamie?" Kaleb asked.   
  
Lily waved her hand absently. "Oh, he won't be up yet."   
  
Kaleb grinned her trademark wicked grin. "Tire him out, did you?"  
  
"Kaleb!" Lily squeaked and she threw the pillow at the brunette. Once she got over the shock, she smiled sheepishly and nodded. "Hey, I think I left my presents over there, I'm going to go get them. Be right back, ok?"   
  
Kaleb nodded. "Sure. See you in a few."   
  
Sirius Black nearly jumped out of his skin when the door to the dorm opened, revealing a bright-eyed and bushy-tailed Miss Evans. "Oh, sorry. I didn't think you lot would be up yet. I just came over to collect my presents. I must have left them here." She explained, flashing a smile.   
  
James sat up, having pulled on a shirt and pants. "So that's it, huh? You were just coming in to get your books and then sneak back out again?" He asked coldly.   
  
Lily's expression when from content to puzzled. "Well, yes. I thought I'd start in on some reading and let you sleep. Why?"   
  
"Maybe we should give them a minute…" Remus suggested, and he ushered Sirius and Peter out of the dorm. The door clicked shut behind them, and the dorm room was silent.   
  
"What's that all about?" Lily asked, as she stacked her gifts neatly on top of each other. She was clearing away the discarded wrapping paper when James answered.   
  
"Why weren't you here when I woke up?" James asked, his voice suddenly tiny.   
  
"I got a little freaked out." Lily admitted. "I was planning on saving…that…for my wedding night. I just wanted to go sort things out. Why? You…oh, Jamie…you thought I…" Lily sat on the bed next to him, and wrapped her arms around him.   
  
James clutched the slight girl to him, leaning his forehead on her shoulder. "You weren't here, and it was just like…just like before…and I thought that you…that you had left me…" James was inwardly cursing how pathetic he sounded.   
  
"James, I wouldn't ever do that to you. You know that, right? I just needed a moment to think, I didn't think that you would be up until a while later." Lily stroked his unruly hair, and pressed a kiss to the top of his head.   
  
The events of that night hadn't been mentioned all throughout the following week, and we rejoin the friends at dinner on a Friday night.   
  
"I'm starving, I could eat a Hippogriff." Lily exclaimed, wrapping an arm around Kaleb's waist.   
  
"I'm not sure they serve hippogriff here, love." Kaleb replied, as she rolled her eyes.   
  
"Funny." The group sat in their usual seats, and as the food appeared a rather wolfish grin appeared on Lily's face. "Shepherd's pie, oh how I love you!"   
  
She picked up the fork sitting next to her plate and suddenly dropped it as she yelped. "Ouch! What the hell…that's hot!" She said, looking at the burns on her hand.   
  
Quizzically, Kaleb touched the piece of silverware. "Lils, it's practically ice-cold."   
  
All the color promptly drained from Remus' face. "Lily, come with me now." He said urgently, and caught the protesting girl by the arm as he hauled her to her feet. "We're going to see Dumbledore."   
  
(So that was Chapter 20, I bet we all know what Remus has to say, right? Expect 21 to be out soon.) 


	21. Chapter Twentyone

(Fwee! Chapter 21! I have such clever reviewers ^_^ And have I told you lot lately that I LOVE YOU GUYS! FWEE!  
  
I decided to upload this chp a bit early, just because you're all so nice ^_^)  
  
"Remus, what is this all about?" Lily asked, as Remus practically shoved her into Dumbledore's office.   
  
"Yes, Mr. Lupin, to what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?" Dumbledore asked, his eyes twinkling merrily.   
  
"I…I think Lily's a…a werewolf, sir." Remus said, studying the pattern on the older man's desk.   
  
"What?! You think I'm a werewolf? Remus, honey, to be a werewolf you have to be bitten by one." Lily said, patting his arm.   
  
"You were, Lils. Remember that night in the shack?" Remus said.  
  
"But that's impossible, I was…well it's just impossible! Dumbledore," Lily turned to face the headmaster, "I'm an unregistered Animagus, ok? Remus bit me, by accident, while I was in my animal form. Werewolf bites don't affect animals!" Lily insisted.   
  
"The wound was still bleeding when she turned back. The warm blood kept the bacteria alive, and it got into her bloodstream." Remus explained to the headmaster.   
  
"Remus, I've been using that silverware ever since that happened, wouldn't it have burned me then?" Lily argued.   
  
"No, the change takes about a month to complete. Different parts of you change at different times, the make-up of your skin is one of the last. Miss Evans, I'm sure you wouldn't object to a test, would you?" Dumbledore asked patiently.   
  
"No, of course not." Lily held out her arm and Dumbledore drew a small vial of blood.   
  
"This is powdered silver, if your blood starts to boil, then we'll know what you are." Dumbledore said, and dropped the silver into the vial. Sure enough, the blood began to boil.   
  
Lily nodded once, accepting her fate. "Professor, if the ministry must be notified then do so, if they don't have to be, then don't. But there will be no mention of Remus in any of this, alright? I…I know what happens to werewolves who turn someone. This wasn't his fault."   
  
Dumbledore nodded. "Hopefully the Ministry will not need to be notified. Good-day Mr. Lupin, Miss Evans."  
  
Once Lily and Remus were beyond the Headmaster's office, Remus broke down. "Lily, I'm so sorry. I never meant for any of this to happen and…and you must hate me. I will completely understand if you never speak to me again and…oh god, Lily I'm sorry!"   
  
To Remus' utter shock, Lily laughed. "Oh, Remus! You don't honestly believe that I blame you for this, do you? It was my own fool decision to go to the shack. If you keep apologizing I will be forced to disembowel you, however." The glint in her eyes punctuated her remark, and Remus bore his regret in silence.   
  
The six of them sat in the boys' dorm in a stunned silence. Kaleb was valiantly fighting back tears, whether of sadness or anger Lily couldn't tell. Peter had taken a seat by the window, and was clenching his hands to keep them from shaking. Peter's favorite cousin had been killed by a werewolf, and it had taken a long time for him to accept Remus…now there were two.   
  
Sirius' hand had quickly found Remus', and he offered his silent support for the grief he knew his pale friend was feeling.   
  
James sat, and stared off into space. The only sign that he had even heard them was the fact that he was trembling.   
  
'He's terrified.' Lily thought, as she cocked her head to the side. 'But…is he terrified of me? That would make the most sense, but he's always been such a Gryffindor, in the worst way.'   
  
Lily was shaken from her reverie as James rose to his feet and drew her into his arms. He pressed her close against him and whispered frantically into her ear. "Lily, I'm so sorry. And god, I love you, I love you so much and this doesn't change any of that and…and I'll find a cure for it. I promise. Lily, god, I will find a cure."   
  
Lily smiled bitterly. "The only cure is a silver bullet, love."   
  
When the girls were leaving, Remus caught Kaleb's arm. "Would you do me a favor?" He whispered in her ear, so the others couldn't hear him.   
  
"What?" Kaleb asked.  
  
"Would you…erm…give me the heads up when Lily starts her period?" Remus whispered, flushing.  
  
Kaleb gave him an odd look, and he continued. "So I can explain something to Jamie, there is no PMS like werewolf PMS."  
  
Kaleb fought back a smirk and nodded.  
  
Later that evening, Lily was curled up in her bed, reading Chained to the Moon like her life depended on it. Who knows, it just might. 'They don't seem to know a whole lot…' She thought mildly, flipping a page. 'Except for how to identify and kill us, that is.'   
  
Lily was about to flip the page again, when a header caught her eye. 'Mating?' Lily almost blushed, as she remembered the night spent with James.   
  
'Werewolves, like their natural counterparts, mate for life. The first person that a werewolf has sex with is their mate for the rest of their existence. If the human half of the couple should stray or die, the lycanthrope would follow in death. There have been very few verified accounts of werewolves mating with humans, as the tendency for humans to grow bored in a relationship will mean the death of the lycanthrope. The mating call does not begin until the lycanthrope reaches maturity at fifteen years of age, to prevent pups from mating. Once a werewolf has mated, they are emotionally bonded forever.'  
  
Lily blinked at the page. 'Oh god…I'm mated to James…forever…' She thought frantically. 'He can't know. He mustn't. I won't tie him down with this…it's more than enough that one of us is the prisoner of the wolf.'   
  
With that, Lily decided to set him free, and bear the pain in silence.   
  
The next morning things went, oddly enough, business as usual. Even their Care of Magical Creatures lesson, in which Lily freed the fox-like creatures they had been studying, was completely normal. It was almost as if the revelations of the previous day had not been made. They were simply friends at school, nothing more.   
  
And if James noticed that Lily wasn't quite as open with him in her affections as usual, he made no mention of it.   
  
If Lily thought that now that she had found a mate that she would be spared the awkwardness and instincts that come with the search for one, she was greatly mistaken. Every time she saw him, a possessive instinct flared violently in her. During Transfiguration, she was somewhat surprised and somewhat proud to see that a bite mark on his neck was still visible from the night of their…consummation. It seemed to mark him, to claim him as her own.   
  
As she pondered this she stroked the outside of his thigh, absently. 'Mine.' She thought fiercely. "Mine." She growled in a whisper.   
  
James smiled at her and color rose in his cheeks slightly, at the look in her eyes.   
  
The more human part of Lily's mind snapped back into control. Her hand immediately retreated from James' warmth. He looked slightly puzzled, but said nothing of it. Lily forced herself to inch slightly away from James. She resolved not to sit next to him in their next class, potions.   
  
In potions Lily caught Kaleb's eye and motioned for her to sit. Kaleb was puzzled, as she had expected her best friend to want to sit next to Jamie. It was nice to know that she hadn't been completely replaced. Kaleb settled in next to the redhead.  
  
"Do I want to know why you aren't sitting with Potter?" Kaleb drawled, sapphire eyes uncharacteristically guarded.   
  
"And deny myself the pleasure of your company?" Lily said, somewhat over-dramatically.   
  
"Right. I will get it out of you eventually, you know." Kaleb warned, conversationally.   
  
"You might." Lily agreed.   
  
James entered the room a few seconds later, and seemed a little surprised that Lily hadn't saved a seat for him. 'Ah, well.' He reasoned. 'Of course she'll want to sit with Kaleb, those two are closer than anything.' James felt the uncomfortable coiling of a little bit of jealousy in his stomach, thought he couldn't imagine why. What was it to him if his girlfriend wanted to sit with her best friend?   
  
He slid into a seat next to Peter, and grinned at his compatriot winningly. "Let's try not to poison ourselves this class, eh Pete?" He whispered conspiratorially.   
  
"Oh alright." Peter said as if it were a great sacrifice. 


End file.
